


Fool's Gold

by shepardly



Category: Prospect (2018)
Genre: Cee is a tough little independent gremlin, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No shipping of Cee and Ezra, this takes place at least a year after the end of the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28908585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shepardly/pseuds/shepardly
Summary: After escaping the Green Moon, Cee and Ezra find themselves having to start over. Instead of going their own ways, Cee talks Ezra into going in on the prospecting business as partners, and things are going well until they encounter unexpected problems during the latest of their jobs on a partially terraformed planet.
Relationships: Cee & Ezra (Prospect 2018)
Comments: 29
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I have no idea how terraforming an entire planet would work. I am pulling this directly from my ass. Suspension of disbelief, pls and thnx and ilu

***

“Easy, now.” The mic clicked on when Ezra spoke.

“I’ve got it.”

Ezra let out a long-suffering sigh.

“I know you do; just ignore an old man’s rambling.”

Cee _did_ ignore him as she focused on the task before her. She had come to learn that Ezra was not fond of silence, preferring to fill it with chatter about anything and everything or absolutely nothing, and it had taken her some time to adjust to it. Her father had been a man of few words, preferring to keep conversations short and to the point, and his shorter temper had been enough to keep Cee from asking too many questions or chattering about her latest obsessions. Ezra, on the other hand, seemed to love to hear himself talk, taking delight in explaining even the most mundane subjects in great detail, and on top of that he somehow knew the right questions to ask Cee to get her chattering about her own interests and hobbies. She was pretty certain that she had spoken more words since leaving the Green Moon than she had for several lunar cycles before that.

“Almost there,” Ezra murmured just loud enough for the mic to pick up again. She didn’t think he knew he had said it out loud, but she was trying to focus and it was getting on her nerves.

“I _said_ , I’ve got it.”

Ezra muttered something about his mic sensitivity settings, but it was cut off in the middle as he muted his mic.

Cee finished sliding the last of the dampening coils into place, making sure that they all sat properly in place, then stepped back to give her work another once-over before punching a command into the nearby control panel. The ancient mechanism inside the old and experimental terraformer groaned and screeched as it pulled the dampening coils back into place, but it gave out with at least three centimetres to go before it was closed and an alarm beeped a warning. Knowing that Ezra was probably already talking while having forgotten that he had muted himself, Cee didn’t bother to remind him as she already knew what he’d be saying. She punched another code into the control panel, then grabbed the handle on the cap and made sure her boots were properly magnetized to the metal walkway to give her more leverage in the planet’s low gravity to shove the device the rest of the way into its cradle. Air hissed when she turned it to the right and then the lock mechanism gave a satisfying _‘ka-chunk’_ that indicated it was properly in place.

“Seventeen down, three to go.” Cee said as she closed the control panel and made sure her work bag was properly secured. “Do you think this thing is ever going to do what they hope it will?”

Despite the centuries that the terraformers had run, the planet was barely inhabitable. She even had to wear her helmet and suit and carry a small supply of oxygen to supplement the low levels present in the planet’s atmosphere, although she could get away without wearing it for a while if she needed to.

It took a moment for Ezra to unmute his mic again.

“If it does, it will be long past our lifetimes. To be frank, I don’t rightly care, as long as we get paid.”

“Mercenary.” Cee said with a soft scoff.

“Little bird, _we_ are _prospectors_.” Ezra sounded scandalized. “Nothing so lowly as the common mercenary. Just mankind, making our way into this cold and unforgiving frontier to discover what treasures it may hold and making it our own.”

“And making money.”

“And making money.” Ezra conceded. 

“Isn’t that sort of what mercenaries do? Or maybe pirates.”

Ezra let out an exasperated sound that she recognized as the one he made when he had to stop and think up a good comeback or argument for her.

She was carefully making her way down the old metal walkway to the next station before Ezra’s mic clicked on again.

“Tell you what. Remind me to look up the definitions for mercenary and prospector and pirate later so we can argue the finer points.” Something clunked over the mic as Ezra bumped something. “Keep going this way, you’ll be home in time for dinner. It’s Henrik’s turn to cook.”

“Let me guess: nutrient bars for dinner. With a side of nutrient paste. And another nutrient bar for dessert.”

“You catch on quick.” Ezra said dryly. “But listen, Henrik told me about a guy on the orbiter who has _real_ freeze-dried strawberries. _Real_. He’s selling them for a fortune, but I’m thinking it’s worth it.”

“Vetoed.” Cee said immediately. “We need to save the money to properly restore the ‘fresher on the hopper.”

“ _Real. Strawberries_. Have you even ever had one of those?”

“You wanna know what else could be real? A _‘fresher_ that hasn’t been gutted.”

“Cee, you’re killing me here.”

“Your stench has been killing _me._ ”

“I am wounded.” Ezra said, drawing it out dramatically.

“My nose has been wounded.”

Ezra grumbled something before his mic muted again. Cee made it to her next station and began punching codes to pull the next bracket. It should have contained five of the old-styled dampening coils, but two of them were completely missing from this one and one of the remaining rods was badly damaged. She was in the process of removing the damaged rod when the mic clicked back on.

“Do I really smell that bad?”

Cee couldn’t help the grin that tugged at the corner of her mouth, but she finished removing the damaged rod and carefully set it in the tough plastic recycling bag before responding.

“You’re no worse than anyone else I know.” Which was true, but if she never had to smell dry shampoo or the weirdly chemical smell of the mostly-dry wipes they used in lieu of actual soap and water it would still be too soon. 

“You know me, and Henrik. Not exactly convincing me here.”

“I just want a way to get clean when we're traveling, even if it’s just a steam clean. Hot water. And soap. You ever had one of _those?_ ” Cee tried to think of the last time she had really felt _clean_ , but couldn’t think of any time more recent than childhood. “And I know Joanne. But she smells nice. Because her ship has a proper refresher.”

Ezra was quiet for a beat, and for a moment she worried that she had pushed too far, talked too much, before she remembered who she was talking to.

“You’re awful set on this. You sure I don’t smell too bad?”

Having come to a natural break in her work, Cee stood to turn and look up at the drone that Ezra was using to monitor her and her surroundings while she worked.

“We’ve been talking about that ‘fresher for _ages_. You even said a couple cycles ago that we nearly have enough. How much is a freeze-dried berry that’s been fertilized by Kevva-knows-what going to set us back?”

They _had_ been talking about the refresher ever since Ezra had recovered enough on the Central-BG freighter to be lucid and aware of how stripped their hijacked hopper had been, which had taken a few cycles and enough medical treatment to put them pretty firmly in debt. For a while, it had still looked like Ezra wouldn’t pull through; the Green Moon's dust festering in his pierced lung before the medicine had finally cleared it. Cee didn’t like thinking about it, how grey and still he’d been, almost as lifeless as the corpse of the Sater mother in the settlement back on the planet she’d sworn never to to return to. 

Now, Ezra grumbled some more as the drone dipped and swiveled as he ran another manual scan. He was getting better at running the drones ‘weak handed’, as he called it, but still required a great deal of concentration for the finer hand movements. He _could_ have gotten a semi-functional prosthetic, but he had insisted on putting the money towards their new venture instead, saying that he’d get a proper arm replacement once they had ‘struck it rich’. That had been three jobs ago, and while they were able to afford their tools and the basics a lot more comfortably, it was still a race to stay ahead, to 'keep their heads above water'. Despite that, Ezra had still managed to find her the next module she needed for her schooling- completely illegally and considerably cheaper than the approved price, of course- and made sure she had time to complete the work. If she ever wanted to challenge the exams in Central, she'd have to purchase the modules legitimately to have it on her record, but she at least had the education now.

“You’re right.” He finally admitted as she was punching in the command to seal the cooling rods. “Strawberries can wait.”

Cee hummed in response, pleased to hear it, but knew better than to rub it in. It was nice, having her opinion count for something in conversations about financial plans to bickering about who smelled worse.

She had almost finished installing the next set of dampening coils before Ezra spoke again.

“You never answered my question.”

“What question?” Cee asked, distracted by her work.

“You ever had strawberries? Or any kind of berry from Central?”

Cee considered that one for a long moment.

“When I was little, my father was working a job where he couldn’t take me. I stayed with a family, I don’t really remember who they were, but I think they had been friends with my mom. Two of the mothers took me to a market one day, and one of the traders was selling berries from Terra for way too much." Cee smiled at the memory. "I remember the lady arguing with the trader, and the trader finally gave her a ‘deal’ on her favourite ones, but her wife hated them and she wouldn’t eat even one. But she offered some to me.” 

“And?”

“And they were terrible. So sour, I thought my jaw was going to break. And it was all seed inside.”

Ezra laughed out loud at that, and Cee couldn’t help her own grin widening. It wasn’t quiet for long before the mic clicked back on. 

“You ever go back to see that family again?”

“No, I don’t even remember their names, or where they lived.” Cee frowned at that. Her father hadn’t spoken of the past much, simply told her to ‘move on’ when she did try to ask. “They c—”

“Cee, drop what you’re doing.” Ezra suddenly said, voice hardened. “Now.”

“What?” Cee looked at what she was doing, which was holding one of the new and fragile coils in her hands, ready for placement. “I can’t!”

“ _Cee!_ ” Ezra barked, and Cee knew he wasn’t joking. Still, she took the time to carefully put the new and expensive coil away in its case before she got to her feet to look for what he had seen.

The surface of the planet they were on had a strangely flat terrain, the fields around her mostly gentle rolling slopes populated with moss and sharp-bladed grass and fuzzy fern-like plants, with large and random pockets of gravel scattered amongst it all. When they had first arrived, she thought the pockets of gravel had been made by meteors striking the planet’s surface an undetermined amount of time ago, but Ezra had said they were caused by local wildlife that had been introduced and then gone extinct cycles upon cycles before she had even been born. No one really knew why the creatures had gone extinct, especially since the funding for the terraformer and studies had run dry ages ago and had only recently received a shot of currency to get the machinery up and running again, which was when Ezra and Cee had won the bid for the job of getting the device back into working order.

“Henrik’s on his way.” Ezra said in her ear. His drone was hovering above her shoulder, it’s little motors buzzing softly although she could still hear it clicking quickly through its different sensors.

“What’s wro—” Cee stopped when she saw it.

A bare patch of gravel that she didn’t remember seeing before was stirring nearby, as if something below the surface was bubbling. Or digging. She realized she should have heard it sooner, but the sound of the gravel moving wasn’t much louder than the volume she had been speaking. She fumbled for the thrower in her bag and pulled it out to hold it at the ready. 

“Just back away, slow and quiet.” Ezra ordered. “Stay on the walkway.”

Cee obeyed, demagnetizing her boots so they didn’t clank as much and hung onto the handrail with the hand that wasn’t holding the thrower to keep herself from walking off the open side of the walkway by accident. She’d already jumped off it many times without getting hurt, thanks to the lighter gravity, but she’d rather stay out of the way of… whatever it was before the surface. The different gravity had been kind of nice, fun even, and while she could cover a lot of ground quickly, she had no idea what was down there. 

“I thought you said nothing lived here.” Cee kept her voice low, trusting that her mic would pick it up as she continued to slowly back up.

“None of the information packs had anything on this!”

The stirring gravel slowly slumped to make a shallow but large bowl in the ground and went still.

“Ok, I think it’s leaving, but—”

The ground seemed to explode nearly under her feet, tossing gravel and dirt into the air with enough force that she could feel it pelt against her suit with bruising force. The walkway she was on rocked violently, sending her flying, and she barely had time to see the terraformer coming at her _way_ too fast before she was suddenly blinking at the spiky grass and clumps of moss past a crack in the view screen of her helmet.

Ezra was shouting something over the mic but her ears were ringing, distorting sounds. She managed to push herself upright in time to see Ezra's weaponless drone bounce heavily off the head of an ugly and mottled grey and brown creature with far too many teeth and a coat of dust in its coarse fur. The creature snarled at the drone but it was still creeping towards Cee, muscle bunching under its hide as it prepared to lunge. She tried to scramble away from it, but her back hit one of the support beams for the walkway of the terraformer. The drone bonked against the creature once more, and it finally turned its attention away from her long enough to swipe at it.

“ _Cee, run!_ ”

She saw her thrower laying nearby and grabbed it before staggering to her feet to start running. It took her a moment but she managed to even identify the direction she had bolted in and only needed to alter her course slightly to head directly towards the camp set up only about a klick away. She could see Henrik in the land mule, on his way like Ezra had said he was, but he was only just coming past the camp as he had gone the opposite direction as her that morning. She didn't stop or slow, too terrified to look behind her.

It hurt to run, but adrenaline sang in her blood and kept her upright and moving.

“Get down!” Henrik shouted when he had almost reached her, which was at the same time she stumbled. She let her fall take her in a bouncing roll across the ground, but scrambled to try and keep herself mostly oriented with the ground. As she rolled she saw a streak of grey and brown against the pale yellow sky, and then heard a thrower start spitting out pellets before something made a horrible _thud_ of impact before she was hit by something that felt like a wall and was sent skidding and bouncing back the way she’d come.

She was still writhing on the ground, stunned, trying to sort out up from down as everything spun around her in sickening loops when someone grabbed her by the back of the suit and hauled her upright. She nearly went back down again but an arm threaded under hers to hook her arm behind someone’s neck and hung on to her tightly enough that her toes barely touched the ground anyway.

“Henrik,” Cee croaked, “my bag.”

The inside of her helmet had a splatter of blood on it, she dimly noted, and when her tongue touched her swollen lip she could taste copper. She immediately forgot about it when she saw past her helmet windscreen and saw the tipped land mule and the dusty creature violently tearing into a body, sending red blood spraying in an arch.

“No,” Cee didn’t even recognize her own voice, filled with horror, and she was dragged around until she couldn’t see any more of Henrik’s demise. Her head tilted back enough to let her see Ezra, helmet-less, eyes wild yet calculating as he kept checking over his shoulder as he half carried, half dragged her towards the base camp with steps made large by low gravity. They were closer than she had thought. His footsteps were weirdly muffled as he took her up the metal steps to the habitat and for some reason she noticed that he hadn’t even taken the time to put his boots on. 

Once they made it through the rapid cycle in the airlock that made her ears pop, Ezra kicked the door shut and tried to carefully put her down on the floor so he could secure and lock it properly, and then he slid to the floor, chest heaving as he struggled to recover from the sprint in thin atmosphere. Cee didn’t even try to get up yet, still feeling like she had been hit by a truck, but Ezra eventually clambered to his feet and bolted into the security room to start slamming the shielded porthole covers throughout the habitat shut.

Cee unclasped her helmet and pulled it off to push it carelessly aside, her head still spinning, feeling like she was going to be sick. She couldn’t stop thinking about Henrik, but the horror was being replaced with a numbness that seemed to fill her whole body. She struggled to sit up, suddenly desperate to get out of her stifling suit, but stopped when she saw a puddle of blood growing on the floor by her hip.

She could only stare at the tear in the side of her enviro-suit for a moment before she numbly put her hands over it and tried to keep her blood from spilling out so freely. The thought of trying to repair such a large tear sent a surge of irrational annoyance through her. She realized she was panting, shallow and too quickly, and her head was somehow threatening to float away and drag her down to the floor at the same time.

“Cee, are you—” Ezra slid back into the room in socked feet and froze for a split second when he saw her before he grabbed the large field kit and all but threw himself down beside her. “Here, here, lay down.”

He hung on to her to let her down more gently than she could manage on her own, and she tried to steady her breathing and take deeper breaths while he rooted through the field kit. Ezra was still breathing heavily, but she knew it was probably still from running around outside in the thin atmosphere.

Outside.

“Henrik,” Cee croaked again. 

“I know.” Ezra simply said, and started cutting her suit open even more. She had to bite her lip but still nearly screamed when he accidentally bumped the throbbing center of pain as he worked, barely heard his murmured apologies but he didn’t stop what he was doing.

“Gonna be sick,” Cee managed to mumble, and he pulled her onto her shoulder. There wasn’t much in her stomach, the nutrient bar she had eaten for breakfast long gone, so it was mostly water and bile that came up. Ezra was still working on her side, still talking, either to her or to himself. She felt like she was only catching every other sentence or so but his voice was still comforting. 

"Okay, good, no vital organs were hit," he said at one point, although how he knew that she wasn't sure, "you just got clipped."

He jabbed a needle into the meat of her thigh through another hole he had cut at some point she didn't remember, and while it hurt the sensation was mostly lost in the flood of pain signals going off in her head. Within moments of being stuck, however, a cold numbness spread through her leg, up to her chest and nearly down to her toes. It didn’t exactly hurt, but the feeling was still odd and uncomfortable. Ezra did something that made her nearly lurch upright to double over, and the light-headed feeling suddenly got a _lot_ worse.

“Breathe, Cee, _breathe_.” Ezra barked. "Focus!"

She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until he gave her a shake, and it took concentration to do like he said; deep, long breaths, make them exaggerated, _focus_. Breathing deep made her ribs ache despite the tingling numbness, like a huge bruise that she could somehow feel in her bones. The focus part was hard too, with the world still tipping and turning even as she laid on the floor.

A light suddenly flashed in her eye and she grimaced and tried to pull away, the spike of pain in her head shocking in its intensity. Her stomach tried to revolt again, but there was nothing else to lose and she managed to hold it together.

“That’s a hell of a concussion you got there, little bird.” Ezra said, putting the light away and pulling out another syringe to set it aside. “C’mon, let’s get this suit off.”

She managed to pull her gloves off while he undid the fastenings of her suit, then he moved so he could slide his arm under her back to lever her upright. She had to grab handfuls of his shirt to keep herself upright, but she managed to do so despite her vision threatening to go dark around the edges. Ezra peeled her mostly-destroyed suit down to her waist and hissed out a curse, but didn't stop what he was doing. 

Cee was wearing her short sleeves and shorts under the suit, having kept warm enough with her work, so when she looked down at herself she realized it was easy to see the damage, bruises blooming on her pale skin and blood standing out starkly even on the dark material. It didn't look like she had lost a fatal amount of blood, at least, but she had to admit it probably looked bad. Ezra stuck her thigh with another syringe he had pulled out and pressed the dispenser in with his thumb. She barely registered it, distracted when she saw that he had nearly completely cut her suit in half to get at the injury in her side, which was packed with medical grade sealing foam now. Her short sleeve shirt was ready for the recycler, torn where something had ripped her suit and shirt and then her open. Her side around the wound was mottled in colour, reds and blues and purples that were threatening to become black and green, but she didn't look like she was bleeding out anymore. 

She found herself worrying about what she'd do about her suit more than anything, knowing it would be a pain if not impossible to patch such a huge tear and it would still be technically compromised anyway. She'd have to pull out her spare suit; it wasn't as comfortable since she'd had another growth spurt, but it would have to do.

“We’ll still need to get to the orbiter.” Ezra said. “They’ll patch you up properly. I just gotta make sure that thing is gone.”

He helped her up, getting her to step out of the suit, and picked her up like a child with one arm while she hung on around his neck and he hauled her to the scavenged jump seat that they had put in the security room. It hurt, but he was gentle, and the seat was much more comfortable than the floor.

“Just hang tight, alright? I’m gonna get us some water and then get the drones back in the air so we can reconnoiter and make some decisions before we move. Clear?”

“Clear.” Cee said, closing her eyes briefly and feeling like she was going to sink through the reclined chair and never stop falling. At least the sick feeling had passed, and she well and truly could not feel her injured side anymore, although it was allowing the aches and pains in her head to make themselves known now that the worst was gone. 

“Don’t sleep quite yet, let's make sure that knock on your head didn’t scramble you too bad.” 

Cee knew that, and gave him a Look but he had already left the room again. She spotted the controller for the drones laying on the floor where it had clearly been dropped and saw on its monitor that the drone that had been trailing her was laying on the ground but still streaming its video feed. She could see the back wheel of the land mule and not much else. The drone that had been trailing Henrik had returned to its charging cradle since it had been without any orders for some time. She leaned off the chair and swiped at the controller, barely reaching it and nearly dumping herself off the chair.

“What are you _doing?_ ” Ezra came back in and dumped her blanket from her bunk on her and put her back in the chair. She had managed to grab the controller so she didn’t protest. 

“That thing is still out there.” Cee managed to get the drone off the ground and went to point it towards the last place she had seen Henrik. Ezra stepped in front of the monitor and reached for the controller, but she held it away and glared at him. 

“I’m not a _child _,” Cee snapped, and grimaced as she held a hand to her aching ribs again.__

“Says _who?_ ” Ezra glared back, and she briefly considered throwing the controller at his head but decided it probably would only prove his point. “Cee, _nobody_ needs to see that.”

“I’m _not_ a _child_.” She enunciated every word clearly, as if difficulty hearing was the problem.

Ezra glowered at her for a moment longer with an expression she couldn’t quite decipher before he finally shook his head and handed her her canteen before he crouched down in front of her, his expression the one where he wanted her to listen and listen _good_.

“He was coming to help you, he _wanted_ to help you. That’s not your fault.”

“If he hadn’t—”

“Then it would be me and Henrik in here with you dead out there. He wanted _you_ to live, Cee. Don’t throw that away, but don’t hold the blame. You can’t be going down that road.”

Cee felt a tear trickle down her face but she wiped it away and nodded. Ezra gave her knee a squeeze before he rose and went to the cupboard that had the throwers in it.

Henrik had taken the long thrower that morning while Cee had taken her small thrower and both had been lost during the land mule crash, so all that was left was Ezra’s double barrelled and oversized thrower that he lovingly called a ‘shotgun’. Cee had no idea what that meant and Henrik called it ‘compensating’ and Cee still didn’t know what _that_ meant but suspected it was something dirty judging by the way Ezra had smacked him upside the head.

Her eyes burned with more unshed tears as she guided the drone into the air and surveyed the wreckage of the land mule. She hadn’t known Henrik for long, but she knew she’d miss him.

__Cee had expected to find the creature still hunched over its meal, but to her shock, it was gone. She turned the drone, searching for it with several of the camera’s different settings, but there was no trace of it or Henrik’s body. There was, however, another patch of bare gravel that she didn’t remember seeing before._ _

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__“Ez,” Cee called over her shoulder, and grimaced at the ache that talking caused in her ribs, “I think it went back underground.”_ _

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__Ezra came back muttering under his breath and leaned over her shoulder to look at the monitors._ _

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__“I suspect you’re right.” He said after she showed him the new gravel patch near the last place they had seen it. “Can you pick anything up on the sensors?”_ _

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__She flipped through them all while scanning the area thoroughly, and turned up nothing._ _

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__“Alright, I vote we make a run for the hopper before it gets any more dark out there.” Ezra grabbed his holster and began strapping it on, which he had somehow mastered one-handed by flinging it around his hips and catching the tail end, although it sometimes took a couple tries. “What say you, little bird?”_ _

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__“What about the job?” They were so close to finishing, to getting fully paid._ _

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__“Let’s deal with the more pressing concerns first.”_ _

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__Cee bit her lip, considering, but she knew he was right. If their positions were reversed, she’d insist the same. They'd be able to get a better idea of what they were dealing with from the orbiter, as well as get more supplies for dealing with it._ _

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__“Fine.” Cee gave in, throwing the blanket off to try to stand, but Ezra grabbed it and threw it around her shoulders again and dropped his thrower into her lap to go rummaging through another storage cubby._ _

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__“I’ll do the running, you do the shooting; if it comes to that.” Ezra told her, pulling out two of the emergency breathers and handing one to her. They were bulky, looking like a gas-filtration mask, and they weren’t suitable for long periods of time on the planet surface but they worked well enough for short jaunts like they were about to do. “Don’t bend or twist too much, we don’t need you cracking something open and start bleeding again.”_ _

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__She rolled her eyes as she put her breather on before she wrapped her arms around his neck when he bent down to pick her up. She held the thrower gingerly behind his neck with both hands while he scooped her up, essentially letting her sit on his arm while she hung on to keep herself upright, and she dropped one shoulder to keep from bumping his breather with every movement. He stood up fast enough that her head threatened to start spinning again, but she stubbornly held on to the thrower and leaned against him while hoping it would pass quickly._ _

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__“Alright, let’s go.”_ _

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__The hopper wasn’t far, although it felt far enough to Cee now that they knew there was at least one dangerous creature around while night was coming on. Ezra had insisted on keeping the hopper barely outside the needed buffer zone to keep the rockets from damaging something within the camp, and Cee was now glad that Henrik hadn’t won the argument to put it out a bit further._ _

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Ezra didn’t waste any time, jogging as best he could while carrying her in the low gravity, and she could tell that he was trying to go as smoothly as he could to keep from jostling her. She wanted to yell at him that she was _fine_ , to just _go_ , but she grit her teeth and watched his back with the thrower ready.

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__They were nearly to the hopper when the first creature burst out of the ground alarmingly close behind them, all bared teeth and claws. Cee gaped for a split second and nearly fumbled the thrower before she began firing on it repeatedly. She didn't know if she was even hitting it, but she knew she had to try to at least slow it down. Ezra thundered up the ramp into the hatch and spun her around so she could grab and activate the hatch seal before spinning back around so she could continue firing on the creature while the ramp lifted at what felt like a painfully slow rate._ _

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__“There’s more of them!” Cee cried out when she spotted at least three more of the creatures closing in on the ship._ _

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__A large body hit the closing ramp and sharp claws scrabbled at the edge as it continued to close. Ezra all but dumped Cee into the pilot’s seat and took his thrower back._ _

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__“Get this thing fired up!” He shouted, and started firing at the creatures that were still stubbornly trying to follow them in._ _

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__Cee grabbed the manual and flipped to the right page and started punching in the needed sequence with shaking hands. Panic told her to hurry, to rush, but she determinedly kept a level head and made sure she was following all procedures properly. Another heavy body slammed against the side of the hopper and Ezra shouted something unintelligible over the sounds of the hopper coming to life and the creatures snarling and banging outside. An alarm went off with a frantically blinking red light on the console._ _

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__“We need that hatch shut!” Cee yelled over her shoulder while making sure the drive was properly shoved into the reader._ _

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“I am _working_ on it!” Ezra yelled back and fired both barrels of his thrower, repeatedly.

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__One side of the hopper suddenly lifted, nearly dumping Cee onto the floor from her seat before it dropped back level with a thunderous boom._ _

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__“The fuck—” Ezra started while Cee tried to turn to see what was happening, but before either of them could finish the hopper lurched again, this time far more violently. Cee tried to grab the seat’s safety harness but the nylon slipped through her fingers, and she had the brief sensation of falling before everything went black._ _

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	2. Chapter 2

***

“Mayday, mayday, mayday.”

Cee slowly became aware of Ezra talking, although it didn’t seem as though he was talking to her.

“We’ve been attacked by unidentified life forms, and our hopper is badly damaged.”

The hopper cabin was dark, only intermittently lit by the slow blinking of all the lights on the console at once. That was bad, although she couldn’t quite remember _why_ that was bad. 

“We need medical assistance, and a ride off this rock. Please respond.”

_Critical failure_ , a small voice told her, _the blinking lights mean critical failure_.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday—”

Consciousness suddenly came flooding back, like a bucket of water dumped over her head, startling in its suddenness.

“Whoa, whoa, just stay still.” Ezra said nearby as his hand settled on her shoulder, anchoring her. “You got rattled again. You okay?”

Cee had to squint in the dim, blinking light. She could barely make out Ezra sitting beside her, his breather down around his neck while he looked at her with his brow furrowed with worry. For some reason, the hopper hatch was directly overhead, the jump seats were on the nearby wall, and the floor she was laying on was strangely lumpy.

“It’s on its side.” She finally realized, and didn't realize she had spoken until she heard her raspy, muffled voice with her own ears. She pulled her breather down around her neck, but Ezra pulled it back up and settled the strap more comfortably around the back of her head.

“Nothing gets by you.” He said dryly, putting his own breather back on as well. “The hatch is closed, at least.”

She blinked up at the hatch, likely closed under its own heavy weight, and tried to move to sit up again.

Pain shot through her side, bad enough she nearly blacked out again. She clutched at her ribs and tried to get enough air while breathing shallowly in an attempt to keep from igniting that pain once more. The headache from banging her head inside her helmet earlier was back now too, as if adding insult to injury.

Ezra was holding her hand that wasn’t holding her ribs, his grip bordering on painful.

“I’m okay,” Cee finally managed to gasp out. Ezra snorted out a humourless laugh.

“That’s my line.” He told her. “Just… just stay still.”

Cee decided that was probably a good idea and didn’t try to sit up again.

She knew she was drifting in and out of consciousness, but she wasn’t sure how much time had passed; minutes, or hours, she wasn’t sure. Eventually she became aware of being held like a child, Ezra having shuffled to pull her into his lap and let her lean against his chest with her head on his shoulder. His thumb was rubbing circles on her arm, strangely soothing, and she was warmer now so she didn’t complain. It hurt too much to get the breath to talk, anyway. She let herself drift.

Something jabbed her in the shoulder, and Cee abruptly snapped awake. The pain in her side was suddenly _blinding_ , but she grit her teeth to keep from shrieking, her shallow panting harsh in her ears.

“... pull you out once I climb out, then we make a break for camp.” Ezra was saying. She tried to focus on him, blinking rapidly, trying to understand what was happening. “Clear?”

“Going for camp.” Cee finally managed to croak under her breather. Her side hurt, badly, and she wondered if they had any more of whatever Ezra had stuck her with earlier that had numbed her clear to her toes. “Clear.”

Ezra tried to give her his thrower, but her hands were clumsy and shaking and she couldn’t even lift it. Her head was pounding and she felt clammy. Ezra put the thrower in his holster instead and crawled somewhere above her head that she couldn’t see, but she heard the creak of the small round maintenance hatch that was normally on the _top_ of the hopper opening.

Ezra was moving quietly but she could still hear the odd soft thump as he moved about, then it was quiet for a moment. She didn’t hear him come back, and the hand on her arm seemed like it came out of nowhere but her senses were dulled enough that she didn’t even flinch. He tugged on her, gently at first, but when she didn’t move fast enough for his liking he soon leaned back into the cabin to drag her out.

It was easier to hang onto his neck without the thrower in her hands. The sun was just coming over the horizon, the thin atmosphere diffusing the bright rays oddly and making it slightly difficult to see, but Ezra made full sweeping turns every few steps to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them. Cee vaguely wondered what he’d do if there _was_ something sneaking up on them. There were a lot more of those creatures than she would have guessed. 

But they made it back to the habitat without incident, although there was evidence that the creatures had come through the camp and caused some minor damage to the buildings before apparently moving on. Ezra got them through the airlock and put her in her bunk before pulling her breather off.

The battery pack for the O2 compressor apparently had been nearly dead in her breather, because the air in the habitat seemed to go straight to her head. Her lungs demanded more oxygen, _now_ , but she kept her breathing steady and tried not to think about how bad her ribs and side and head hurt. Ezra left the bunk room but returned shortly with a handful of things he had clearly grabbed out of the scattered field kit.

“Chew these.” He tossed a pack of pills at her and ripped open the box of instant ice packs from the field kit. “Why didn’t you tell me your ribs were hurting?”

“There was a lot going on.” Cee reminded him, checking the box label for the right dose. “My side hurt worse. My _head_ hurt worse.”

“And now?” Ezra laid the soft ice pack across her middle, letting her adjust it to where it would do the most. She took the pills and cradled the ice pack to her ribs, considering not answering as it was a stupid question, but Ezra was waiting with one eyebrow lifted and hand on his hip.

“Yes, it hurts,” Cee said irritably, “it was numb for a while but it hurts again, what do you want me to say?”

Ezra blew out a breath and pulled another small syringe out of his pocket and tapped it against his thigh.

“Here’s the thing: this is the last syrette. I can give it to you now, and it’ll wear off in about 8 hours, but Kevva willing we’ll be on the orbiter by then. Or: we sit on it. Wait until we know for sure what the plan is. Keep it in case we need to move again.”

“Move again? Move where?”

“The main camp.”

“How would we do that?” 

With the land mule, it wasn’t a difficult drive. They had already done it a couple times for resupply runs as it was cheaper to have what they needed delivered there rather than taking their own hopper into orbit. It would be a long journey on foot under normal circumstances; essentially impossible now that there were blood-thirsty animals prowling the area.

“They have a big rock-hopper over there. It’s our best chance.”

“But _how_ — Wait, we need to warn them.” The thought suddenly occurred to Cee, belatedly. “Those things…”

“The thought did occur to me.” Ezra admitted, suddenly too busy to look her in the eye. “I’ve been trying to get in contact.”

“And?”

“And no one is picking up. But we _have_ been having issues with the sun flares; could be the equipment is just acting up again.”

“So nothing is going through to the orbiter base either.” Cee had a sinking feeling in her gut.

“Critters somehow knocked out the power to the communication arrays anyway. All we got is the ground signal, and I'm not sure how far that's reaching in these conditions. We'll have to get power to the arrays again to know for sure.”

Cee pressed a hand to her forehead, covering her eyes. She would love nothing more than to take the syrette now, take the pain away and trust that everything would be resolved before it wore off.

“I’m just gonna give it to you,” Ezra said, but she stopped him from taking the cap off the syringe.

“No. Save it. Just in case.”

“We’re going to feel really stupid when rescue comes within an hour.” Ezra quirked a lopsided grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Yeah.” Cee tried to grin back but mostly failed. Ezra put the syringe back in it’s little protective sleeve and put it on the desk before pulling Cee’s blanket up over her and tucking her in more securely.

“We’re gonna get off this rock.” Ezra told her. “Ain’t the first time we’ve done something like this.”

Cee thought of that time, running from the Green. As soon as the hopper had left the ground, pinning them in their seats, Cee had closed her eyes, nearly dizzy with the thought that something was wrong, that they were going to burst into flame, tear apart in the atmosphere, or worse: misjudged the timing and the towline was already long gone out of their reach. Ezra had missed it or simply didn't remember, having finally passed out at some point during their ascent, but Cee still remembered that feeling of relief when they broke atmosphere and she opened her eyes to see the plain industrial freighter hanging against the empty background of space.

“Get some sleep, little bird.” Ezra said, ruffling her hair. “We’ll be back on the orbiter before you know it.”

Cee nodded as she closed her eyes, and tried to believe him.

***

Ezra soft-stepped around the habitat for the third time since getting back from their disastrous attempt to get off the planet, checking all the porthole coverings as well as the doors. The main entrance outer airlock door had been damaged by something strong with claws but fortunately the critter had stopped before actually breaching. They had enough O2 stored for a fair amount of cycles as well as the atmospheric O2 compressor, so he wasn't worried about that, but any sort of breach would make them go through oxygen considerably more quickly.

He poked his head into the bunk room to check on Cee once more, and noticed she had put her headphones on but appeared to be sleeping, or at least close to it. The bruising on the side of her forehead and down to her cheekbone seemed to be darker and more prominent every time he looked at her, but the scrape above her eye and the split lip had finally scabbed over at least.

The security cameras still weren't showing anything when he returned to his station, but it wasn't particularly surprising. The large badger-like creatures were capable of burrowing at incredible speeds through the loose gravel that covered far too much of the planet's surface. He suspected they would actually leave tunnels if the terrain allowed it, but had adapted to the shifting materials. Nothing in the information pamphlets had mentioned anything about animals larger than bacteria living here, though, and he couldn't imagine how _anyone_ studying the planet could have missed these things. The only thing he could come up with was it was one of the things that had been severely overlooked due to the funding cuts that had happened before their time.

Ezra tapped the controls for his preferred drone and sent it on it's standard patrol route. Cee had put it back in it's charging cradle when she had finished with it last time, and now that it was mostly charged it lifted off with no battery complaint, although it was showing the warning that told him he should give it an inspection due to the rough hits it had taken when he’d dropped it on the creature’s head. It was likely still in better condition than the other drone, however, as he and Henrik had been having endless but sporadic issues with the sensors and the feed that it was supposed to send back to the base. He dismissed the warning on the first drone for now, and it began it's patrol. Ezra leaned back in his seat and absently rubbed his chin as he watched the screens, mind busy brainstorming ideas and discarding them as quickly as they came.

The idea to head to the main camp still appeared to be their best option, but he dreaded finding out what waited for them there. For all he knew, that camp had already been wiped out and they'd just be going into a situation even worse than their own. Or maybe the occupants of the main base camp had already seen the problem and abandoned the planet in favour of the orbiter base, removing the rock-hopper as an escape option. The drone's range didn't extend even half as far as he’d need, either, so he wouldn't be able to check it out beforehand.

When the drone monitor indicated it had completed it's patrol with no abnormalities and therefore on its way back to it's charging cradle, Ezra took control of it instead and went to inspect the damage to the communications array. 

As far as he could tell, all of the damage was in the cables, thickly insulated but simply strung out on the ground to get the power to where they needed it. Their power system was a relatively simple set up; solar panels mounted on the small shipping container that contained the batteries and fuse panels and parts plus tools they may need for repairs, with the insulated cables running to the various but few places they needed power. The sun was above the horizon for about 80% of a standard cycle, giving the solar panels plenty to work with, but he was glad it was just the cable to the communications array that was damaged, although it still caused complications.

He took the drone out to look at the land mule once more, still lamenting the loss of such a useful tool. It had been their only vehicle for getting around on the planet surface, and they'd come to rely on it. This time, he took a closer look at the damage and the items that had been scattered when it had flipped after hitting the first creature when Henrik had lost control. For how much plastic the front end of the land mule had lost, the frame was still surprisingly intact, although it may have been warped a bit from how it was currently laying. The engine compartment seemed to have been protected, for the most part, by the cage that was meant to protect the engine in case of such an accident. Ezra hummed over that for a bit, considering their options, wondering if it was possible to get it back on its wheels, when he noticed something odd in the scattered items.

Henrik had been out taking samples, of basically anything and everything on the planet's surface for the scientists working on the project to study as well as put into the archives. Ezra had hired Henrik on specifically for the scientific side of things, as it was worth nearly half of the take they'd be getting for finishing the job and Henrik had the experience they needed. Since the start of the job, Cee had been shadowing Henrik when she could, watching everything he did with sharp eyes, and Ezra would bet credits that she had picked up more than Henrik would expect. Even when she looked bored or distracted, Ezra had come to learn that Cee was still listening and while she would ask the occasional question for clarity, she preferred to watch and learn. While Ezra had mostly left Henrik to his own devices when it came to his part of the work, he listened to Cee when she chattered about what she had learned from him and saw the sealed samples that Henrik had brought back in large cases. However, Ezra had never seen any samples that would require the large-bore auger that he was seeing on his security feed now, and Cee had explained one morning that Henrik didn't really need anything more than a shovel to reach the depths he was documenting anyway, as the terraformer was buried deep enough in the ground with enough sensors to get any more information the scientists may need anyway.

The thought distracted him. They still had to check those sensors on the terraformer and download any stored data to take back with them as well.

His chronometer buzzed on his wrist, indicating it was time to eat again. He tapped the command that would bring the drone back to the charging cradle and went to the small kitchenette to prepare the unappetizing but nutrient rich rations that had the prescribed amount of calories and vitamins to get them through the day, and took them to the bunk room.

Cee was awake again, her notebook and pen in hand, but they were laying on the blanket while she stared listlessly at the ceiling. The bruises on her face had stopped getting worse, at least, but they didn't look any better either and she had a sheen of sweat on her skin.

He should just give her the syrette. He shouldn't have even suggested putting it off. She was in _pain_.

Cee saw him and pulled her headphones off. She must have read his expression, because the first thing she said was, "I'm fine."

"You look like shit."

"Speak for yourself, old man." She retorted, but only with a token amount of crossness. He snorted and kicked her toolbox closer to the bunk so he could sit on it and handed her her rations.

"Eat up. Gotta keep up your strength."

"Not hungry."

"I know. Choke it down anyway."

He _did_ know, remembered it from the times he'd been hurting bad enough to lose his appetite. As awful as it was to force oneself to eat something you didn't want to eat, however, starving oneself was much worse. Practicality won over sympathy in this case.

Cee scooted up the bunk to sit up a bit and picked at her food and sipped from her canteen that he handed her. By the time he had finished his own lackluster meal she had only eaten about a third of hers and claimed she was full. He gently bullied her into eating a couple more bites before taking it back to the kitchenette and tossing it in the recycler. When he returned, Cee was still sitting up, still looking rough as hell, and a bit out of it. Ezra knew she was tough, made of sterner stuff than he'd been at that age, but it hurt to see her so battered. It didn't help that it had been _his_ fault she'd been hurt. If he'd just shut his trap to let her work, she might have heard the badger-thing digging in the gravel.

"What are you thinking about?" Cee asked him, despite looking like she could fall asleep where she sat.

"That you should get some more sleep."

"Liar. And I can't sleep." Cee shook her head. "Tell me."

Ezra picked the box of painkillers up off the floor where they had fallen and handed them to her again. Normally he hated the things and their addictive nature, but Cee was a responsible kid and in genuine pain. He'd keep an eye on her but he was reasonably sure it wouldn't become a problem. She checked the label again and then her chronometer before taking another two pills.

"C'mon, let's take a look at that wound." He motioned for her to pull the blanket back. She rolled her eyes but folded the blanket down and pulled her shirt up enough to see it. The foam sealant seemed to be holding, at least, and there wasn't any new blood. Her scrawny torso was badly bruised, but they hadn’t gotten any bigger so he didn't think she was bleeding internally, thankfully. He tried not to think about the alarmingly large puddle of blood he'd had to mop up in the common room. "What about your ribs?"

"Sore." She grudgingly lifted the bottom of her shirt more to show the bruises she had there. "I don't think they're broken."

"May I?" It was better to be safe than sorry. For a moment he thought she'd refuse, but she nodded and let him probe the bruises a bit, biting her lip and hissing out 'ow' the whole while. "I think you're right, not broken, just bruised. Try to keep breathing deep, I know it hurts but it's better than getting lung sickness."

Cee just nodded in response, pulling her shirt back down and he shook the blanket out over her again. It was colder than he would have liked in the habitat, but turning up the temperature would only put more strain on the power station and he wasn't willing to risk pushing the system that also ran the ventilation and O2 before he could give it a proper in-person inspection, so blankets it was.

"It was my fault." He finally admitted, the words coming out before he knew they would. "I should have been watching better, shutting up more so you could hear what was going on around you. I'm sorry. I messed up."

Cee just looked at him for a moment, eyes dulled by the painkillers but somehow still sharp, mental gears turning. She seemed surprised; not that she'd ever admit it. It made him wonder if Damon had ever apologized to her for anything.

"Thanks." She finally said. "I'm not mad, but thanks. I could have told you to shut up too."

Ezra snorted again. "Like being told to shut up has ever shut me up in my life."

Cee huffed out a laugh, grinning, and he couldn't help his own grin.

"I'll work on it. No promises, but I'll work on it."

"Alright." Cee said after a moment with a small nod. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, I'll endeavour to mute my mic more often, for one," he started, being deliberately obtuse.

"No, the _plan_." Cee thumped her hand impatiently on the cheap foam mattress of her bunk.

"Right." Ezra rubbed his hand on the thigh of his pants, considering how to start. "I think we should start by getting the communications array powered up again. As far as I can tell, it's only the cable that's damaged."

"There's a couple spares in the power station."

"Exactly. It would take hardly any time at all to change it over, and it would get us a line to the orbiter."

"But those things are still out there."

"I ain't seen them all day. They may have moved on by now."

"Or they could be waiting."

She was right, but Ezra found himself frustrated anyway.

"We can't afford to wait much longer, little bird. We've got food, we've got water, we've got O2, but that sealant in your side won't hold forever, and even if it did you stand a chance to get an infection without proper treatment, and we can't exactly chop the offending area off." Ezra stopped, tried to calm down, opened his fool mouth anyway. "Even if we could, I'm not ready to give up my special privileges as the only amputee in this little venture."

"I knew it." Cee smirked at him, picking up on their inside joke, but she sobered quickly. "I could do it. While you man the drone."

"I still have _one_ hand, Cee, not none." Ezra said in exasperation. "I'll do it, _you_ man the drone."

Before they could bicker about it any further, the power in the habitat suddenly went down without warning, the hum of the heater and ventilation winding down until it was silent and leaving them in the dark.

"What was that?" Cee whispered after a long moment as they listened. Ezra slowly got to his feet and silently stepped to the door to poke his head into the security room. Most of the monitors were dead, but one of them was flipping through the security feeds as it's backup battery blinked a warning that it would be going out within fifteen minutes. Nothing else moved or made a sound.

On the feeds, the sun was already mostly set but he could still see movements. Several of the large badger creatures were moving around the camp, but so silently they couldn't be heard from inside. Two of them were near the power station, investigating the corpse of a third one that had its teeth set in the biggest bundle of cables that ran from the station. It was the cable that ran directly to the habitat. Incidentally, it was also the cable that powered life support.

"Shit." Ezra said.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fair amount of my tasks at work require using GPS driven vehicles and let me tell you. The solar flare struggle is real. I have no idea if it would actually affect communication signals as well but let's pretend for the sake of this story it would.


	3. Chapter 3

***

The nights in general were relatively short on this badly terraformed planet, but this night felt interminably long to Ezra. He managed to scrounge up their headlamps and a small camp lantern and used the headlamp to do another interior sweep, making sure everything was still secure and sealed. Cee refused to stay in bed, so Ezra hauled her into the security room in a compromise to keep her from straining herself. Together, they watched the remaining monitor click automatically through the feeds until the backup battery died.

“There’s a lot of those things.” Cee whispered. 

Ezra didn’t think the critters would be able to hear them talking but didn’t fault her for trying to be quiet. He scrubbed his hand over his face and straightened to start pacing the small room. A ‘lot’ was an understatement. There had been enough of the badger things to nearly swarm the camp, making it impossible to properly count them, but if he had to guess it was probably somewhere above thirty of them. The majority of them appeared to be juveniles, but he had counted at least half a dozen that were much larger and seemed more cunning than the smaller ones, which didn’t make him feel any better because he was pretty sure it was one of the smaller ones that had gone after Cee and killed Henrik. 

“Alright, what do we know about these things? They tunnel underground, but they can still run overground, they’re dumb enough to chew on live cables.”

“They’re hungry.” Cee offered.

“They’re hungry,” Ezra stopped pacing, holding up his hand with his count, “what else are we missing?”

“They’re nocturnal?”

Ezra lifted his last finger.

“I think you’re right. We didn’t see them all day yesterday, but as soon as the star dipped below the horizon they showed up again.”

“But that first one tried to attack me during the day.”

“It was one of the young ones, the smaller ones.” Ezra turned and started pacing again, still thinking. “So it’s not that they _can’t_ come out during the day, it’s likely more to do with their... schedule? Habits?”

“Maybe they hibernate, or something like it. I read in one of my modules that younger animals of some species don’t hibernate for as long as the older ones and will be out at odd times.”

“Okay, good, good.” Ezra automatically tried to snap fingers that weren’t there anymore but shook it off quickly. “We have enough O2 in here even without the power station to get us through ‘til morning. Once that star’s peeking over the horizon I’ll go and get the power back up.”

Cee shivered but didn’t say anything. Ezra grabbed the blanket off his bunk and threw it over her. She pawed her way out from under it and blew away the strands of her hair that had fallen over her face before settling in more comfortably on the chair.

“I hope we’re right.”

“Me too, little bird, me too.”

***

Daylight saw Ezra sticking his head out the airlock, checking his surroundings before stepping out. Cee stood behind him in the airlock, leaning against the wall to stay propped up and his double-barreled thrower in her hands. He walked forward enough to stand on the steps for a moment, just taking in the camp, giving any lurking critters an opportunity to show themselves. When the camp stayed silent and still, he turned to look at Cee.

They had dug her spare suit out of storage so that they could both get suited up for this morning's activities. Ezra wasn't sure how long it would actually take him to drag cables around, and Cee had insisted on the precaution. As tired of enviro-suits as Ezra was, he couldn't fault her. His new suit, at least, fit more comfortably and had a working climate control. As soon as he had picked it up from the supply depot in the Belt, he had stuffed his old suit in the recycler and hit the burn cycle. Cee had called it a waste, and while she was right he still felt better doing it. It had been sweat and blood stained anyway, and felt like a good step forward from the hellish memories he had of the Green.

Cee was looking at him, a look on her face that indicated she at least had some idea of what he was thinking.

"You good?" He asked her, still worried about her. If she started bleeding out again in her suit, he'd either have to destroy her last intact suit or take the time to wrestle her out of it. Neither seemed like appealing scenarios.

"Yeah, I'm good." Cee nodded, dragging the folding chair up beside her so he could grab it and set it up on the small metal deck. She carefully dropped down into it and straightened her legs out, adjusting until she was sitting back enough to take pressure off her side, but room for her to fold her legs under her so she could jump up if needed and with the thrower ready in her hands.

Ezra squeezed her shoulder reassuringly and clomped down the stairs, still taking his time and checking that nothing was going to bolt out of cover. By the time he reached the power station, he decided that nothing was in the immediate vicinity, which meant he needed to get into gear and start hustling.

It wasn't until he reached the door to the power station that he saw that it wasn't latched. He stepped to the side and whistled to get Cee's attention, and jerked his head towards it. She lifted the thrower and held it ready, and he reached over to yank the door open.

Nothing jumped out, and the thrower remained silent. He cautiously peeked around the corner, jerking his head back reflexively before realizing it had been his own shadow, then leaned over to take a better look.

None of the animals were still there, but they clearly _had_ been there. The shelving had been pulled over, and tools and parts were scattered all over the floor. Fortunately, the spare cables were still hanging from their hooks on the wall.

"Ez!" Cee snapped impatiently, unable to see what he was looking at inside the little shipping container.

"Clear." He called back. "They made a mess but they're gone."

Cee relaxed a bit, but still held the thrower ready while he did a quick walk-around the power station. He groaned when he saw that some of the sun-facing lower panels were damaged. They'd have to be replaced if they wanted proper power levels for everything they ran in camp. He went into the station and started rummaging through the mess for the long handled wrench that would make disconnecting the cables a hell of a lot easier with one hand, leaving the solar panels for later. He found the wrench under the spilled contents of the spare fuse kit and dragged it outside.

"What was that?" Cee asked a little pointedly, and he plastered on a large fake smile to point in her direction while keying his mic sensitivity down enough that it wouldn't pick up his grumbling that he had apparently started while sorting through the mess. Once that was done, he set the wrench to the setting he knew he'd need and went to disconnect the damaged bundle of cables for the main power and life support. While communications would be nice right about now, they needed oxygen and power more, and had agreed that if time ran short and they had to choose, it was the priority. He had the cable disconnected from the power station and was heading to the habitat to disconnect it from there when Cee spoke again.

"Will we be able to save any of it?"

He looked at her, and she gestured towards the power station. He reached the cable connector and shoved the wrench into the receptacle to twist it off and drag it clear.

"I believe so, although it _is_ in a state of disarray." He said with more cheer than he was feeling. "There's a couple panels I’ll have to replace before we're done here, too."

Cee groaned at that too, which made him feel a little better for some reason. He had to kick through the mess in the power station once more to reach the spare cable and dragged that out as well. He worked as quickly as he could while Cee stayed alert on watch, and it wasn't even time for the midday meal by the time the habitat and life support system had power again and the solar panels were replaced.

"What say you, little bird?" Ezra stopped for a breath, putting one foot up on the bottom step and squinting in the sunlight at her. "Check over the habitat and security systems now, or change the cable for communications first?"

Cee sucked in her bottom lip to chew on it while she considered that.

"Are you good to keep going?"

"Yup."

"Then I vote to get the communications array back online."

"Done and done."

It didn't take as long to get power back to the array, and Ezra checked the fuse panel to make sure everything was up and not throwing any codes before he jammed the power station door shut again and latched it. He wasn't terribly optimistic about it staying shut if the creatures took to it once more, but he hoped they had sated their curiosity and wouldn't try again anyway.

"We should be getting inside." Cee said, looking more on edge. The sun was beginning it's descent, which meant it wouldn't be long until the time the creatures began to come out. "I meant to ask you if you could grab my bag, I lost it when the land mule crashed."

Ezra looked out in that direction. The land mule really wasn't that far, perfectly visible from where they were and the sprawling dome-like structure of the terraformer beyond it.

"Wilco."

"What?"

"Will comply."

"Oh. I don't know if you should, right now." Cee said with uncertainty. "Maybe we should wait until tomorrow."

"It's right there." Ezra gestured. "Just keep that thrower handy. I've got my knife. Clear?"

Cee huffed, obviously not pleased, but eventually confirmed.

"Clear."

It didn't take him long to get to the wreckage, able to take long strides in the low gravity, and he didn't waste any time grabbing the long rifle that Henrik had dropped. He eventually spotted Cee's bag, further away from the wreck than he was expecting, and scanned around for her smaller thrower before giving up and heading back to camp. Everything else would have to wait for another day.

Cee got up as he clomped with magnetic boots up the steps again and he helped her hobble her way to the airlock before grabbing the folding chair and dragging it in after them.

The airlock worked properly on the way in, which was a promising sign, and they came into the habitat to the hum of the ventilation system. They got rid of their suits and Ezra plopped Cee back into the security chair to get it back online while he went to check the life support systems.

_"Mayday, mayday, mayday."_

When Ezra came back to the security room, Cee was already broadcasting the emergency hail and the drones were already mostly charged in their cradles while the monitors for the security cameras were all online.

"Any luck?" He asked, but Cee just shook her head.

“Forecast shows that the solar flares are still active.”

“We’ll just have to keep broadcasting until something gets through then.” Ezra sighed. Cee grabbed the drone controller once more and sent one on patrol and took the other out herself, so Ezra grabbed the tube that contained their terrain map and shook it out onto the small table they usually ate at and began going over it when a thought occurred to him.

"Wait, what drone did you take out?"

"Ummm, Alice is on patrol, I've got Bertha."

"Bertha has been giving me nothing but grief, there's something wrong with her wiring. I've been meaning to get to it."

"It's working fine for me."

Ezra frowned at that but just shook his head as he went back to the map. It was just one more damn weird thing he had been dealing with on this planet. What he wanted to focus on, _needed_ to focus on, was figuring out if their plan to make it to the main camp was a viable one. As for the route, they had already plotted the most direct but safest way to base camp one, and he wanted to know if there was anywhere else they could go to shave even just a bit more time off the journey. The planet was mostly flat anyway, but there were a few rolling hills and a steep ravine they skirted on the way.

"Hey, Ez," Cee called, "why do we have explosives?"

"We don't, we didn't need any for this job." He said distractedly.

"Then what's this?"

Ezra went to look at what she was talking about, and stopped dead when he saw what was on her screen.

Cee had taken the drone to look at the land mule wreckage, much like he had, but she had been more thorough in inspecting the items scattered. Not far from the large-bore auger he had found earlier, she had found a case that had broken open and scattered small bricks of high-grade explosives - a type he hadn't seen since his short-lived stint as a miner when he had first set out on his own. It was what they had used to push further into mines while searching for veins of whatever minerals they were after; because it only required a small brick to break up large amounts of stone, it had been an often used method to save the wear and tear on machinery.

There was no reason for it to be on a neglected terraformed planet run by an organization of scientists that relied on unreliable funding and third party contractors to run it.

Unless…

"Cee, that drone running alright?"

"Yes."

"Go out to where Henrik was working the other day."

Henrik had been working at the very edge of the drone's patrol range, but the problems that Ezra had been dealing with on the drone seemed to be particularly severe. He had tried rebooting it, changing the batteries, everything, but the issues remained. Despite the problems that seemed to plague drone B, he knew the signal was still patchy at best when it was that far out, so Ezra hadn't thought too far into it, blaming it on the frequent solar flares that plagued them.

So, when Cee found a large pit that could only have been made by someone augering holes into the gravel and dropping high-grade explosives down to clear the gravel all the way down to what appeared to be the parent-material of the surface, Ezra slammed his fist on the desk and bit back a curse.

"What was he doing?" Cee flew the drone around to get a good look at the area. "There's nothing down there but… tunnels? Maybe old lava tubes?"

"I suspect our friend wasn't only working for us." Ezra grit his teeth and started pacing again. "I'll refrain from speaking ill of the dead but I highly doubt he was up to anything good. _Dammit_. We need the sensor data from the terraformer. It's too late to go back out today, I'll have to go tomorrow."

"I downloaded some of it when I was out there last. I have the data drive in my bag."

Ezra probably would have given her an exuberant hug or thump on the back, but with her current beat-up state he settled for ruffling the hair on the top of her head before grabbing her shoulder bag and handing it to her. She unzipped the small outer pocket and pulled the drive out, which he plugged into his tablet and sent the screen to one of the security monitors.

"What are you looking for?" Cee asked, watching him delve into the files he found on the drive.

"Recent seismic activity. I have a sneaking suspicion…" He trailed off as he found the needed folder and got distracted by its contents. Because it was more recent, it didn't take him long to find what he was looking for.

"He was working on that for cycles." Cee said bleakly, getting the same impression as him from the data they were looking at. “That’s what brought those things to the surface.”

"Looks that way." Ezra went back further to confirm that the seismic activity was, indeed, abnormal. "He must have been jamming Bertha's signal somehow. Otherwise, I would have seen this."

"But _why?_ " Cee asked, frustrated. "Why would he do this?"

"One way to find out." 

They both looked at Henrik's bunk, still unmade from the morning he had last left it. There were storage cubbies under the bunks with the ability to be locked, and Ezra hadn't thought much of how Henrik had religiously locked his - they were, after all, strangers before this venture and one could never be too careful. Now, though, Ezra couldn't help but wonder if there had been a more nefarious reason.

He ended up teaching Cee how to pick locks as it was just too awkward to use his lock busters one handed. She caught on quick, opening the third cubby on her own. At first, all they found was just normal clothes and gear one would expect of a scientist. Cee finally pulled out a small notebook and started flipping through it, and found what they were looking for.

“He was taking samples for our job as well as samples for a mining company from Central.” Ezra finally said, reading over her shoulder. “If there is anything of value on this planet, it wouldn’t take much for a corporation like that to come in and roll over on the scientists and environmentalists running this planet and strip it to the core.”

Cee flipped the notebook shut and tossed it on the desk, apparently having seen enough.

“I liked him.” She said resentfully. “Can’t believe I was so stupid.”

Ezra hesitated, knowing he should say something but not sure what the right words were. It felt like a delicate moment.

“You aren’t stupid, Cee.” He finally said. “If anybody was stupid, Henrik was.”

Cee frowned a bit, but didn’t say anything for a long moment.

“I like the thought of helping get this planet terraformed.” She admitted, not looking him in the eye as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “Knowing that someday there will be enough soil and air to support life, so people can come and live here and have work and families, if they want. I thought he wanted that too. Is that stupid?”

Ezra sat down on the edge of his bunk and sighed.

“No, little bird, that is not stupid. I’ll be honest with you, if I was offered the kind of money Henrik was probably offered, I would have done the same as him, but that’s just because I’m a jaded, greedy old man.” Ezra caught her eye, leveled with her, wanting her to know that he believed what he was about to say. “You’re different, Cee. You’re a good person. This galaxy needs more like you, people who give a shit about people other than themselves and actually doing something about it. So no, you aren’t stupid.”

Cee just looked at him for a long moment.

“I don’t think you would have.”

It took him a few seconds for him to figure out she meant him taking the same deal that Henrik had.

“Of course not.” He said. “Not since I got you for a conscience.”

Cee scoffed at him, but she was smiling at least.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed that I updated the chapter count, as I can now say with confidence that's where it's at. I'll still be staggering posting a bit as I tend to edit obsessively but the updates should continue to be posted semi-regularly :)


	4. Chapter 4

***

They both ended up staying awake far too late into the night, watching the creatures prowl about camp on the monitors while making plans for the next day and waiting for the orbiter to get back to them. The plans mostly involved trying to figure out what they could use to get the land mule back on its wheels, and while they came up with a few ideas involving the winch on the front of the vehicle it still came down to waiting and seeing what the daylight held in store for them. 

Cee finally nodded off sometime in the middle of the night shift, and while Ezra knew he should attempt the same, he also knew he wouldn’t be able to. The task of getting the land mule back on its oversized wheels was daunting, but not impossible; what concerned Ezra more was the flush that Cee was beginning to develop. She was sweating more, too, even though the habitat was no warmer than usual. He knew it was likely signs of infection setting in, and it scared the hell out of him.

She shouldn't even _be_ here. Cee was mature for her age and he forgot sometimes that she was just a kid, not even legal to drink or fly or even lease a damn condo anywhere in Central. Fringe planets didn't hold those rules as strictly, but it still didn't change the fact she shouldn't have to be living like this, risking life and limb simply to survive. Damon had already dragged her to the ass-end of this galaxy and nearly stranded her there; she didn't need to live through yet another harrowing planet escape. She should be at school, making friends, learning about art and travelling to tourist planets. Not processing animal by-products and repairing ancient machinery and risking her life every damn day.

If only his mother could see him now. She'd laugh at him, he was sure. He never could stand it when she tried to tell him what to do, to be safe, _don't do anything rash, Ezra_. It had felt suffocating when he just wanted to go and see the galaxy and make his fortune, just like all the posters said he could.

He mentally apologized to her, Kevva rest her soul. He knew now that his mother had just wanted to see him stay alive and safe, not unhappy and trapped like it had felt at the time. He had never planned on having any children in his lifetime, couldn't be bothered with all the paperwork and approvals and money that that entailed and was busy with his own life anyway, so he hadn't been expecting the overwhelming _protect this kid with your life_ instinct that had kicked in on the Green and he hadn't gotten around to shutting off again as of yet.

Still, he had to remind himself: while Cee was young, she wasn't stupid, and she didn't need anyone - least of all himself - to step into a parental role for her. But he owed her, so he had offered to help get her settled, find a _normal_ job, maybe not on one of the fancy inner planets but at least on a respectable one, where she could go to school and meet people her age. That first conversation had been shortly after waking up properly on the towline freighter that was taking them back to Central, when he realized she had stayed and gotten him medical treatment and saved his life despite the fact he'd been the one to kill her father. Cee had thought about it, too. So when she came back to him a couple cycles later with an answer, he had been surprised when she wanted to go into the prospecting business with him as an even-split partner.

He shouldn't have been so surprised, he supposed. It was the only life she had known, and what she didn't know she made up for by learning wickedly quick. She only knew about 'normal' life thanks to the books she read and serials they watched when they got close enough to anywhere with reasonably updated servers to stream and download the latest episodes. He probably should have pushed harder, insisted that she go to an actual school at the very least, but in his selfishness and not wanting to see her leave, he'd agreed to the business deal.

Looking down at her now, sleeping, bruises splashed across her skin; Ezra knew she deserved better.

***

Morning came, and so did the response to their emergency hail. Cee had hobbled out to the security chair to sink down into it while Ezra was checking the solar flare forecast again, and if she noticed that Ezra hadn't slept a wink she didn't say anything about it. She looked a little better than the night before, but she was still getting dark circles under her eyes. Before he could say anything, a burst of static and voices came over the radio on the desk, and he eagerly grabbed the mic that Cee handed him. 

"This is base camp two, anybody reading us?"

"This is orbiter base. We read you, base camp two."

"Oh, we are mighty glad to be hearing from you folks." Ezra was nearly giddy with relief, and judging by the fist pump from a grinning Cee she was feeling it too. "An unexpected problem came up, we've suffered a casualty, and need a ride back to the orbiter for medical treatment for my partner."

There was a short pause before the response came.

"Your hopper is cleared for docking, if that's what you're asking, base camp two."

"Well, y’see, our hopper has been damaged. We're going to need a ride out of here. We’re willing to negotiate if that falls outside the parameters of our contract."

There was an even longer pause this time, and Ezra and Cee exchanged looks as a sense of unease seemed to fill the habitat.

"Your problem didn't happen to involve an unidentified animal species, did it?" The orbiter finally came back. Cee muttered something that sounded like a curse under her breath and ignored the look Ezra shot her.

"Ah, yes, we were attacked by… whatever those things are. Took our power right offline, we only just got up and running again."

"Base camp one reported similar, shortly before they went offline a few cycles ago. We've been trying to reach them and you ever since. All available ground to air hoppers and pods, other than yours, are at base camp one, last we heard."

Ezra closed his eyes and didn't realize how hard he had squeezed the mic until he felt it creak in his hand.

"Convenient." He finally managed, struggling to keep the anger out of his tone. "Thanks for apprising us of the situation earlier."

"Look, the only way off that planet within the next few ten-cycles is at base camp one. I don't know what your situation is exactly down there, but if you make your way there and make sure everything checks out, I'm sure there will be some sort of bonus in it for you."

"How heartwarming."

"That's all I've got for you, base camp two. We've been taking images of base camp one on every pass but as far as we can tell everything looks fine from here."

Ezra looked at Cee again, who was looking at the monitors while worrying her lip again.

"We'll get back to you, orbiter. Base camp two out."

Ezra dropped the mic onto the desk and rubbed his hand over his face before he began pacing again. While heading to the other camp had been the best idea they had bandied about, now that the situation was becoming more clear, the task of actually _doing_ it had become somehow even more daunting. Not only did they still have to figure out how to get the land mule back on it's wheels, but they also had to figure out how to protect themselves for that journey. The times they had run for supplies to base camp one, they had left their camp around sunrise and had to use flood lights on the mule to find their way into the other camp that evening. Usually they would spend the next day getting loaded up and then leave the morning after that to return in the dark once more.

Deciding that they shouldn’t waste any more of the daylight that they had, Ezra tried to convince Cee to stay inside while he went to deal with the mule. Unsurprisingly, but frustratingly, she insisted on sitting guard on the step like she had the day before. He reluctantly gave in, and eventually they were once more in their gear outside and getting her set up in her chair with the long thrower while he kept his shotgun.

"If something happens, and they come into camp, you just go back through the airlock, alright?"

Cee didn’t respond. Ezra prodded her shoulder.

"Back through the airlock." Cee replied, unconvincingly. "Like a coward. Clear."

“Not ‘like a coward’,” Ezra sputtered, “like a… a survivor.”

Cee didn’t say anything.

"I mean it, Cee. There's enough air and water and with rationing there's food to last you until help comes, too."

Cee set her jaw and checked the long thrower for the third time since coming outside and still didn't respond. She was already sweating under her helmet. Ezra sighed, and turned to look out towards the land mule. It was a fair distance to make a shot, but he knew Cee liked to practise target shooting when she could. She'd likely be able to make the shot even from here.

“You know, you could just use the drones.” They had already argued about it multiple times that morning, but he figured one more try wouldn’t hurt. “You don’t need to sit out here all suited up all day.”

“I’m fine here.”

He looked down at Cee again, but she refused to look at him, eyes flicking across the horizon as she kept watch for any of the badger-things. Giving up, he gave her shoulder a squeeze, and set off for the tipped land mule.

It took longer than he would have liked to figure out what he needed to do. Even with the low gravity he wasn’t able to lever it back onto its wheels, and the front mounted winch would only serve to drag the mule on it's side towards whatever he clipped it to. Unless…

It took some finessing, but he unspooled the winch cable and threaded it up through and around the roll cage to get the direction of pulling more to its side before dragging the cable hook back to camp. The cable made a horrible noise against the roll cage and scratched it all to hell and it was likely going to bend something out of shape, but if it got it on it's wheels, maybe it would be worth it. He clipped the cable hook to one of the camp anchors that had been driven deep into the ground to chain the temporary buildings down in case of a severe wind event, then handed Cee the wireless remote for the winch motor and went back to check things once more before giving her the go ahead to begin pulling the cable in.

Plastic cracked and metal groaned and for a moment, Ezra half expected to see the cable snap and go flinging through the air, or have the winch motor simply fail before completing the task. Instead, the land mule ever so slowly tipped until it landed on its wheels with a thump and crunch of gravel.

Ezra punched the air with glee and heard Cee whoop loud enough for her mic to pick it up, then he had to run after the mule as it tried to roll away. He dove through the passenger side opening, glad that the protective nylon webbing wasn't clipped up, and yanked on the emergency brake to engage it and stop the mule before it could go any further or cause damage. He could hear Cee cackling over the mic, and as he kicked and struggled to clamber back out of the roll cage opening she only laughed harder. Once he was back on his feet, he looked at Cee and put his hand on his hip, but he knew there was no saving his dignity from that one. He cracked his own grin, her laughter contagious, and _damn_ did it feel good to actually be making progress on getting out of here. 

He turned his attention back to the land mule, walking around it to see what the damage was. Plastic was cracked and most of the contents of the supply carriers were scattered, either by the wreck or inquisitive creatures or a combination of both. The solar panels on the roof were cracked from the roll as well as some of the plastic, but they could strip panels from the power station and while the plastic siding was good for keeping the wind off while driving, it wasn’t necessary for it to function. All in all, it wasn't as bad as he had feared. 

“Ez!” Cee nearly shouted into the mic suddenly. “I see one!”

He spun around to see where she was looking, and saw her pointing off to his left. Sure enough, one of the smaller critters was slinking low to the ground, eyes set on him as it stalked closer. It was still out of thrower range, but he swore and clambered into the driver's seat.

“Cee, start pulling that cable in as I'm driving, when I get to the anchor make sure it's snugged in tight.” Ezra kept his voice level. “We don’t want them knocking it over again.”

The winch motor started with a whine and he turned the battery on to start driving the electric vehicle towards camp, trying to keep some slack in the cable while not running it over, either. It was enough of a spectacle to make the creature pause, staring at the moving vehicle, and Ezra tried to keep eyes on it and his surroundings at the same time.

Cee’s thrower began spitting, and he jerked his head towards the sound. She was on her feet, a bit hunched as she favoured her side, and firing at another creature that had slunk right into camp. Ezra’s heart nearly stopped when the animal leapt at her, but it fell short as her thrower spit again. When his gaze snapped back to the one closer to him, he realized it had also used distraction to its advantage to gain on him. Gravel sprayed around it as Cee began firing on it, but he figured it was close enough so he tumbled out of the land mule and started running.

Cee was still firing as he pounded up the steps, and he felt the air woosh out of her lungs as he scooped her off her feet and into the airlock. Being the little slip of a thing she was, as well as being in lighter than standard gravity, he had put far more strength behind his movements than needed. 

“ _Shit_ , sorry, sorry.” He quickly undid his helmet and jammed his glove between his knees to twist it loose and strip it off before the airlock had even finished its cycle and let them into the habitat. Cee was wheezing as she staggered in and Ezra grabbed her arm to keep her from tipping over and helped her get her gear off.

She briefly lifted her shirt to look at the blood that was smeared around the foam that filled the wound in her side, and she was biting her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood as he let her down onto the security couch again. 

_He_ had caused this, in his rush to get them inside.

Cee was trembling, from pain or the adrenaline comedown or both, and her paleness just made the bruises stand out even more. Ezra grabbed the field kit and dropped it beside her to grab a bottle of liquid and squeezed it to spray it's contents onto the medical sealant foam to dissolve it. It washed enough of the blood away for him to see the redness around the edges of the gash, with streaks of red leading away from it. Definitely infected. As the foam dissolved, blood began oozing once more, although thankfully sluggishly.

Cee grabbed his shirt while he was reaching for the irrigation solution, and appeared to be trying to collect herself to say something.

"I'll… take that… syrette now," she finally managed to grit out, and he mentally cursed himself out once more for not having thought of it sooner. He grabbed it off the desk where he had put it the night before and bit the cap to tear it off before jabbing it into the flesh above the gash.

She stifled her initial gasp, but the tension went out of her bit by bit as it began to take effect. Ezra quickly rinsed the last of the foam out of the wound and then sprayed the whole area with disinfectant before packing it with fresh foam once more. She lay silently with one arm flung over her eyes, letting him work without complaint, and while it wasn't unusual for him to be the more talkative one he still found her stillness unnerving. 

Her trembling had stopped, but now he found himself shaking. That had been close. _Too_ close. And it had only been two of the _little_ ones that sent them fleeing. Ezra reached over to flick the monitors on for the in-camp cameras, and hissed at what he saw. More of the smaller creatures had crept into camp, and a few of them were inspecting the newly-righted and secured land mule, one of them gnawing on the solid rubber that made up the tire. The sun was beginning it's descent, but Ezra hadn't seen this many of them out while it was still light out.

They were getting bolder.

Which meant their days were getting even shorter.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once upon a time a friend of mine was still getting used to driving stick and one day while filling fuel forgot to put the ebrake on in his car and it randomly decided that it was a great time to lock the doors and roll away but fortunately he knew about the random door locking so he had left the window open but instead of unlocking the door and letting himself in to stop the car he. dove. into the open window and then somehow got stuck and couldn't reach the brake and that's the story of how my friend rode across the gas station parking lot with his ass and legs sticking out the window and the car only stopped when it hit the guard rail. Yes this friend of mine inspired that part of the story


	5. Chapter 5

***

Cee opened her eyes and blinked groggily at the ceiling for a while before recognizing that she was in her bunk. She tried to sit up, startled at the sudden change in location, but her bruised ribs stopped her in her tracks with a groan. She was otherwise blissfully numb once more, and she could vaguely recall asking Ezra for the syrette and then not much else.

"Ez," she called out, then dissolved into a fit of coughing, her throat feeling cracked and dry. She grabbed the edges of her bunk and slowly levered herself upright until she was leaning against the wall in a sitting position. Ezra didn't reply, or appear, but then she noticed her toolbox sitting nearby with her canteen, mic, and a note sitting on it. She grabbed the canteen first and nearly spilled it in her eagerness to get a few sips, closing her eyes at the relief it brought. Once she had enough, she reached for the note, dread beginning to sit like a rock in her gut.

_Stay put. Just putting the mule together. BRB._

Cee grabbed her mic and stuck it in her ear.

"Ez?"

There was a moment of worrying silence before there was a click as another mic went hot.

"Hey, little bird, you doing okay?" Ezra sounded relieved and out of breath.

"Where are you?"

"Just wrestling a new solar panel on this ride so we can get out of here first thing tomorrow."

"Without someone watching your back?" Cee tried to keep her voice level, but it rose a pitch in her anger.

"Hey now, don't speak poorly of Alice and Bertha." Ezra said, punctuating the sentence with a grunt. Cee leaned over far enough to look into the security room to see Ezra from different angles on the monitors. Drone A was patrolling while Drone B hung around camp, with the indicators in the corners of the monitor on to signal that they would trigger an alarm if they caught any movement outside the immediate camp perimeter. "They aren't as good as you but I figured they’re better than nothing."

Cee leaned back, deflated, and twitched the blanket off her side to look at it. The foam was new, and it wasn't bleeding, but the bruising and redness was worse than ever. She still couldn't feel much, but dreaded the time when the syrette would begin to wear off again. She flipped the blanket back over herself again and let her head fall back against the wall with a sigh,

"If you're hurting again, those painkillers are on the floor by your bunk." Ezra said. "Just… be careful with that shit."

"Okay, mom." Cee rolled her eyes and took another sip from her canteen instead. She was sore and achy despite the syrette, but since she was stuck in her bunk anyway it was tolerable. Ezra meant well, warning her about the drugs and side effects and what happened to people who got hooked on them, but she already knew. She had seen what it did to her father, and even dabbled herself with the Clear-Mind pills back on the Green, and while the high had been kind of fun the comedown had been harsh. 

She still wondered from time to time if she would have shot Ezra if she hadn't been crashing so hard from the pills, her blood all but roaring in her ears and singing with adrenaline as he had come aboard the grounded pod. He had never blamed her for shooting him, or the resulting infection that had led to him losing his arm; he even encouraged the 'shoot first ask questions later' attitude if she were ever to find herself in such a situation yet again, but she still felt the guilt from time to time. It wasn't anything she could take back now, and she put it from her mind, but when self-doubt ever began to creep into her mind it was often where her thoughts took her.

"Alright, it's as ready as it'll ever be." Ezra said. "Coming back in, now."

She couldn't do anything but wait for him to tromp in and start stripping his enviro-suit off as he came back to the bunk room. He looked like he hadn't slept at all, _again_.

"You look like shit." Cee told him.

"That's my line." Ezra said mildly, kicking his boots off and shrugging the suit off his shoulders. "And I should say the same to you, 'cause you do."

"We make a pair, then."

"Like Soph and Liv."

Cee perked up at that.

"You reached that part?!" She asked excitedly. "Where are you now?"

Ezra had found a copy of _The Streamer Girl_ at one of the supply depots that dotted the Fringe and immediately gave it to her (which she did _not_ cry about, thank you very much, she had just gotten something in her eyes). She had started reading it again almost immediately, flying through the pages that contained the characters that had become so familiar to her; it was like seeing old friends again. When she had finished it only a few cycles later, she had barely hesitated before she had handed it over to Ezra. He had looked surprised for a moment, but when she explained to him it was only so he could read it before she spoiled any other major plot points by accident, his smile had been genuine.

But he read _so slow_. Oftentimes he'd read before turning off the light at night or in the early morning when he woke up before the day's tasks needed to be started, but it wasn't always a daily occurrence and he wasn't always able to finish even one chapter in a sitting. She knew, because she checked. Often.

"Riel had to leave to keep Cel safe, but doesn't know it isn't going to work anyway."

Cee gasped dramatically. It was one of her favourite parts of the story, although he hadn't gotten to the good stuff yet, so she knew she'd have to bite her tongue to keep from ruining it.

"I think Cel could probably take care of it anyway though, you know?"

Cee clapped her hand over her mouth, refusing to respond to that. Ezra was right, of course, but it was all terribly romantic and made for a good story, in her opinion, and she didn’t want to spoil it for him.

"Alright, alright, I'll keep reading." Ezra patted the air with his hand, obviously knowing that her next words were just going to be urges to do so. He somehow already knew her better than her father ever had, and never mocked her for her interests. "I should get us packed now, though, so we can leave at first light tomorrow."

"I can help," Cee started to fling the blanket back.

" _No_." Ezra said firmly enough to make her pause. "You _rest_ , heal up some more. It's going to be a bumpy ride tomorrow, so get some rest while you can."

"You need rest too." Cee said stubbornly. "I know you haven't been sleeping."

Ezra sighed but didn't deny it. He finished hanging up his suit and turned to face her, hand on his hip as he chewed his lip while in thought.

"Alright, sort through this container and just keep the necessities for the drive." He finally said, kicking one of the supply carriers from the land mule closer to her bunk. "Sort out the canteens I can top up. I'll find the charger so you can charge the thrower packs too."

Cee flipped the lid off the carrier and set to work, sorting supplies like he had said. It kept her busy for the rest of the afternoon, with Ezra bringing her new tasks from time to time as he also worked, but there was still enough time between tasks that Cee found herself waking up from short naps from time to time. Ezra never mentioned it, simply handing her the next task when she was upright and awake again. 

The plan was to leave as early as possible in the morning, and push for higher speeds than they normally did to reach the main base camp before the sun set. It was a risky plan, considering they still hadn't been able to contact anyone there yet, and they had no idea what they'd be driving into.

That part of the plan seemed to bother Ezra. Every time they talked about it he'd get pensive and moody about what they'd do once they actually reached the camp. Cee supposed she couldn't blame him; she didn't like going in blind either.

Finally, they had done all they could, the cases they were taking neatly stacked by the airlock, ready to be loaded. Water was topped up, back-up oxygen tanks were filled, batteries charged, nutrient quick-connect bags were prepared so they could stay hydrated and fed while on the move, weapons were charged and filters cleaned. It was growing dark outside, and the cameras were already starting to catch the movement of the nocturnal creatures.

Ezra was still pacing, looking as though he were staring through the floor, lost in thought.

"Get some sleep." Cee grabbed his pillow that he had given her earlier to help prop her up in her bunk and threw it at him, nearly hitting him in the face. He barely managed to keep it from hitting the floor and gave her an exasperated look as he tossed the pillow onto his bunk.

"Not sure that I could sleep right now, kiddo."

"Then read me the story." Cee said, scooting further down into bed and shutting off the main lights in the bunk room but leaving their small personal reading lights on. It always helped her make it actually feel like bedtime.

Ezra sighed in the semi-darkness and disappeared into the 'fresher for a few moments before reappearing in his sleep clothes and climbing into his own bunk.

"You got an alarm set?"

"Mm-hmm." Cee sleepily hummed. He pretended to reach for his bunk's privacy curtain but grabbed the book instead with a cheeky grin at her noise of dismay. She settled in even more comfortably while Ezra flipped to the right chapter and cleared his throat before beginning to read.

She had read this part what felt like a million times, wrote it and re-wrote it in her notebook after she had lost it, and imagined different ways it could have gone or what happened in the in-between spaces that the author hadn't written down. It was still exciting to hear it again, read by someone who didn't know what was coming next, but she still found herself nodding off to the sound of Ezra's voice.

***

Morning came far too quickly. Cee felt like she had only just closed her eyes when her alarm went off. She groaned and threw her arm over her eyes when the main lights came up, and heard Ezra thumping around as he all but leapt out of bed.

"Rise and shine, little bird."

Cee pushed herself up into a sitting position and patted at her hair, which felt like it was plastered to one side of her head while sticking up in the back. She was still stiff and sore, her side already aching as the syrette had worn off, but overall she thought that the bed rest had probably helped. 

"I will rise, but I refuse to shine." She grumbled, reaching for her clothes to get properly dressed for the trip. She saw Ezra smother a grin before he disappeared into the security room to boot up monitors before going to bang around in the kitchenette.

It didn't take them long to finish getting ready, so the sun still wasn't up by the time they were suited up and anxious to go. There were still a few of the creatures lingering around within sight of the security cameras, so Cee sat in the security chair and watched the monitors while eating her nutrient bar breakfast, already in her suit sans the gloves and helmet.

"Not picking any movement up, anymore." Cee finally called, just before the sun was about to rise.

"Okay, good, let's just give it a few to make sure." Ezra came to look over her shoulder and absently gave her his glove and helmet. "You ready to go?"

Cee patted her little shoulder bag, which held her precious headphones and her soldering kit as well as the rest of her few more precious personal belongings.

"Yep."

"You take any painkillers this morning?"

"Not yet."

"Okay, get them on board now." Ezra handed her the box and her canteen and went to sling his own shoulder bag on before coming back to let her help him get his helmet and glove on. He was perfectly capable of doing it himself, but Cee was able to do it more quickly, and he in turn helped her finish getting geared up.

"Alright, I'm going to go load the mule. Let me know if you see anything." Ezra punched in the command to open both airlocks, and waited until the ventilation system shut down to make sure the oxygen tanks were closed before equalizing the habitat to the outer atmosphere. Cee watched the monitors carefully while he carried the supplies to the land mule and secured them in the back, and it wasn't long before he was back to get her.

"All clear." She told him, and hit the command to bring Alice and Bertha back to their charging cradles, where they would sit and wait for their return. The drones wouldn't be able to make the entire journey without charging, especially if a wind came up, and they were too large to carry in the land mule.

Ezra helped her up but reluctantly let her walk - more like hobble - by herself outside, but insisted on helping get her into the passenger seat of the mule. They had both layered up their warmest clothes under their suits, which would possibly mean they'd be _too_ warm by the afternoon, but with some of the plastic fairing on the land mule cracked or missing it would be a chilly ride in the wind. Once they were in and seven point harnesses were buckled, Ezra put the mule into gear and they were off.

Cee could tell right away that the journey wasn't going to be pleasant for her. The mule was electric, and therefore mostly silent, but the shifting gravel was rough to travel over and jostled them in their seats. Ezra was sticking to the plan, his foot nearly pinning the accelerator to the floor in an attempt to make up time, which did not help with the roughness, but Cee bit her tongue and checked with her mirror to make sure everything was staying secured after having been shifted. Both the long thrower and Ezra's double barreled thrower were strapped above their heads to the ceiling within easy reach. Satisfied that nothing was going to break loose, Cee sat back in her seat and silently bore the ride while frequently checking the mirrors for any pursuers.

By the time Ezra stopped around midday for a short break, Cee felt sick with pain. She must have looked it, too, because Ezra helped her take her helmet off long enough to take more of the painkillers, and gave her an extra half dose. She took it without complaint, and tried to drink some of her water and nutrient pack while Ezra quickly checked the straps on their supplies while downing his own. Within minutes, they were moving again, no slower than before.

All Cee could think about was the throbbing pain in her side. The painkillers helped take the edge off, but it was still overwhelming. She kept forgetting to check for any of the creatures, and a rough bump that knocked her arm against her seat and into her injured side made her vision grey out.

"Hang on, Cee, you're gonna make it."

She opened her eyes to look at Ezra, and had to blink away the blurriness in her vision. She wasn’t sure when she had let her safety harness start doing all the work to hold her upright. She opened her mouth to reply, but her throat was cracked and dry and nothing came out.

“You hear me, little bird?” Ezra sounded worried, an edge to his voice she couldn’t remember hearing before. She opened her eyes again, and realized some time had passed since she'd last opened them. "We're almost there."

She thought she saw something glowing in the distance, and it took her a long moment to recognize it as the sun about to sink below the horizon. Ezra was still driving, looking like he was muttering something to himself, eyes fixed on the path ahead. All Cee could hear was the sound of her heart pounding, able to feel it in her head and chest and side like a stuttering drum.

The last thing she remembered was hearing Ezra shout.

***


	6. Chapter 6

***

When Cee opened her eyes again, everything was quiet and dark. She wasn't being jostled anymore, and the sound of wind and hard rubber tires crunching over gravel were gone but it was replaced by odd banging and distant rustling. She managed to move her arm, and then had a weird moment of vertigo as her body finally registered being laid out on her back on a hard surface with something propping her legs up. Her side was still throbbing, matching the tempo in her head, but it felt more distant now.

She must have made a sound, or movement, something, because Ezra was suddenly leaning over her, concern in his eyes.

"Hey, hey, just stay still." He tilted the light on her helmet to point it away from his face, and she saw bare metal walls behind him, as if they were inside one of the shipping containers. "We made it. You're going to be alright. You hear me?"

She tried to nod, but it was harder than she expected to move. Her throat still felt cracked and dry.

"I'm gonna pitch the tent so we can ditch the suits, alright? Just stay with me here."

Ezra moved out of her line of sight, and she tried to follow his movements. It was hard, though, and her vision kept blurring and threatening to turn grey. She didn't know how much later it was when he came back, but she didn't have much of a chance to think about it when he came back and helped her to her feet. The tent looked smaller than it usually did, but it was jammed between the front of the land mule and a metal wall. Once they were inside, he helped her lay down again on her sleeping bag, already unrolled on the floor, and zipped the tent flap and made sure it was sealed before starting the oxygen and ventilation. She kept fading in and out as he stripped out of his suit and then began wrestling her out of her own, but she tried to help when she could despite her limbs and extremities feeling numb and clumsy.

He helped her sip water from her canteen and gave her painkillers to chew before coaxing her into drinking some of the nutrient juice. She didn't want it, just wanted to sleep, but tried to do as he asked.

"Just a few more hours, little bird." He was saying, his outline fading and blurring in the soft light from the crank lamp. "You just gotta hold on a little longer."

***

Ezra was gone the next time she opened her eyes. She went to rub her tired eyes when something caught her eye, and she paused to look at the black ink that spelled out ‘ _STAY PUT!!!_ ’ on her hand. She sighed and put her hand back down, and immediately felt her canteen and one of the nutrient packs under her fingers.

She managed to sit up and lean against one of the walls of the tent that was against the metal wall that she vaguely remembered seeing outside the tent and attempted to drink at least _some_ of the nutrient pack and water. Everything felt stiff and sore and her side was threatening to start throbbing again, so she held herself stiffly in an attempt to not agitate anything and stayed in her sleeping bag that Ezra must have stuffed her in sometime when she was out of it. A quick look at her side was enough to tell her that he had had to replace the medical sealant foam once more, probably because it had cracked and started leaking again thanks to the rough trip. She was glad she didn’t remember that part. 

There was a creak as a door opened somewhere outside the tent, and then a slam and scuffling footsteps. Her blood ran cold, and she quickly looked around for a thrower, or any kind of weapon, and spotted the long thrower by the door. She nearly threw herself at it before she heard Ezra’s voice.

“Cee, I don’t know if you’re awake but it’s just me.” He said, panting lightly. “I’m coming in.”

She fell back against the wall with a stifled sigh of relief and waited for him to climb back into the tent.

“Good, you’re awake.” He looked relieved to see her upright and he turned to quickly re-secure the tent flap again. “I found some supplies. How are you feeling?”

“Better.” Cee croaked, and took another sip of water. “Where were you? Did we make it?”

“Yeah, little bird, we made it.” Ezra popped the seal of his helmet and took it off with a sigh. “By the skin of our teeth, but we made it.”

"Then… where are we?"

Ezra pulled his bag as well as another one she didn't recognize off his shoulder and dumped his out on the floor, sorting out a couple syringes and sealed foil packages.

"It was dark by the time we got here, and had a few of the big ones following us." Ezra handed her the disinfectant cleaner and she used it to clean her hands and then his before putting the gloves on. "None of the camp lights were on outside, and I didn't exactly have time to knock on the door to see if anyone was home. The storage unit for their land mules was open and empty so I drove us straight in and managed to slam the door before we had any friends join us."

Ezra seemed to shiver at the thought, and that was enough to tell Cee that it had been close. He pulled the cap off the first syringe with his teeth and paused, meeting her eyes for confirmation, and she gritted her teeth and nodded. He jabbed the needle into the meat of her thigh and injected the contents, and she breathed hard through her nose and tried not to yell at him. It _hurt_ , more so than the other times, or so it felt. It might have just been because she felt like one big bruise.

"There you go, just give it a minute." He put the empty syringe aside and held a piece of gauze against where the needle had pierced her skin. "Just try to relax."

" _You_ relax." Cee gritted out testily, and he huffed out a laugh.

"You know what, I'll take the sass. Better than…" He trailed off and busied himself sorting through the items dumped on the floor again. Cee shifted where she sat and couldn't help the sigh of relief as feeling seemed to fade out a bit, allowing tense muscles to unlock and relax.

"I'm fine, Ez." She told him. "I'll _be_ fine."

He quirked a smile at her. "I know you will."

"Did you go inside their habitat? Find out why they aren't responding?" Cee asked while he prepared another syringe. This one had the symbol for antibiotics on it, and then he handed her a new box of anti-inflammatories to take.

"I was in their habitat." He finally started, stopped.

"And?" Cee prompted.

"And I think their troubles started before ours did." He said grimly, and gave her the antibiotic shot. Thanks to the painkiller he’d injected, she didn't really feel that one. "I didn't see anyone, and no one has logged any tasks in a few days."

Cee stared at him for a moment, trying to wrap her head around what he was saying.

“But if Henrik was the one to bring them to the surface…”

Ezra swiped at his chin with the back of his hand and started putting stuff back in bags.

“I know. It doesn't make any kind of sense.”

“Was somebody here doing the same thing?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t plan for us to hang around and find out.” Ezra reached for his helmet and glove again. “I checked the pods and hopper for starters, but no luck. One of the pods is a wreck, some of the critters ripped a panel off and made a mess of the wiring. But it’s only mid-morning. I’ll go find those starters and then we can get the hell out of here and figure out what happened from the safety of the orbiter.”

“We’re not going to be able to finish the job, are we?” Cee felt her gut sink. “Or get our camp back into orbit?”

“I’m afraid you might be right, but let’s not give up hope yet.”

“I want to come with you.”

“There ain’t nothing out there you-”

“Then let me come.”

Ezra sighed, closing his eyes and running his hand through his hair. She knew he was mentally counting to ten, because it was what he did when he didn’t want to shout in frustration.

“Fine.” He finally said, surprising her. “When we find the starters, we can just leave from there. But you stay close to me, and do what I say, no matter what, alright?”

“Alright.” She readily agreed, knowing it was a fair ask and just happy he'd caved. “Let’s go.”

***

The sun was high overhead when they stepped out of the storage container, and Ezra carefully latched the door behind them, hoping they wouldn't need to go back in before they left this planet but not leaving it to chance. The main habitat wasn't far, but it was much bigger than their own modest setup and they didn't have the time or resources to make sure it was actually cleared of any… hostiles.

Ezra had done a quick sweep-through earlier, but his priorities had been getting medical supplies for Cee. She'd been white as a sheet when he had finally been able to pull off her helmet in the tent the night before, and he found that the sealant foam had cracked and eroded enough she had bled even more during their harrowing trip. Fortunately they'd had enough supplies on hand that he could fix that, at least, until he'd been able to venture out in the sunlight to look for more.

He turned to make sure Cee was behind him as they approached the habitat, and caught her staring at the horizon. Three of the sister moons were visible at the moment, and he had to admit it made for a fascinating sight.

"C'mon," he said after a moment, motioning with his head, "let's get inside."

The main camp habitat was made up of portable containers similar to the one that Ezra, Cee, and Henrik shared, but not only were they larger in scale but there were multiple, all connected by hallways that could be sealed in case of an atmosphere leak. They were even fancy enough that the ceilings had several settings for allowing different levels of natural light through, although the power was out so they were simply transparent, at the moment. The main airlock had been open when he ventured in that morning; not a promising sight. He hadn't found anything to raise his hopes, either. Last time they had been here, there had been eight occupants, with room for another dozen that came and went, depending on the work that needed to be done. But now there were no signs of life, friendly or otherwise, and equipment normally used by the occupants had been destroyed and overturned and he had found several sites smeared with dried blood turned rust-coloured in the thin atmosphere. It didn't look good, for anyone that had been there.

Ezra led the way into the first building, which had housed mostly security and storage for planet-surface equipment, and stopped to look around at the mess that the critters had caused by strewing the contents of anything they could get their claws on across the interior.

He hoped the former occupants had kept the hopper and pod starters in a convenient, unlocked yet secure spot.

“We have to look through all this?” Cee sounded dismayed. Ezra couldn’t fault her.

“Unless you have a different suggestion.”

"What if someone had the starters on them?" Cee asked, voicing his biggest concern.

"Then I'm fresh out of ideas." He said, more testily than he intended, then sighed. "Let's just… cross that bridge when we get to it."

Cee went to reach for an overhead cabinet to flip it open and ended up stopping with a grimace, pulling her arm close to favour her injured side.

“Don’t strain yourself.” Ezra ordered. “Just keep an eye out, look for the obvious stuff, make note of anything useful. We’ll make one quick pass through, and if we don’t find anything in the obvious places we’ll go through again more carefully.”

Cee grimaced again but nodded, and they started the daunting task. 

It ended up being even worse than Ezra expected, and he had already braced himself for the worst. He had kicked a bit of a path through the scattered mess when he had come through that morning, but he had stopped and gone back to Cee once he had found the medical supplies, so once they reached that point it was a task to pick a path as well as search for obvious hiding places for starters.

They found an unopened case of nutrient bars, and a large jug of clean water that was still mostly full, so Ezra put them aside to grab on their way out. Cee eventually found a pocket-sized camera drone with its base and added it to the pile, and Ezra came across a computer tablet still plugged into a sensor array, and then they seemed to run out of luck in their search.

“Whatever happened to a fucking key hook by the door?” Ezra kicked another broken case of expensive looking equipment out of his path, having lost patience before they’d even started in the third habitat after the med bay. "It's going to take a ten-day to get through all this shit."

“The sun is starting to go down.” Cee observed, looking up through the translucent ceiling. Ezra sighed, knowing their time was rapidly dwindling.

“Alright, let’s finish in this one and then head back to the tent. There’s more of those things here than back at our camp.”

“ _What?_ Really?”

“Yeah. Either Henrik woke the whole planet or something happened to wake them over here, too.”

Ezra didn’t have a lot of hope for finding anything more before they gave up for the night, but they still did a sweep before he called it and they picked their way back to the main entrance and outside with their scavenged findings.

Possibly tempting fate, Ezra stood in the open man door for a moment, watching the sun sink ever lower. He had hoped that last night would be their last night here, and the frustration of being simply a starter away from getting back to the orbiter… Frustrated didn’t even begin to describe his mood.

Gravel moved under light paws somewhere nearby, and Ezra knew his time for brooding was over. He quietly pulled the door shut, made sure it was secure, then went to join Cee in the cramped tent.

She already had the tablet he had found on and was sitting on her sleeping bag scrolling through the contents when he came in. Once he had the internal atmosphere properly oxygenated, they took turns helping each other out of their gear before she returned to the tablet. Ezra pulled one of the scavenged nutrient bars out to read the package, and snorted.

“Hey, look,” he waved one of the nutrient bars at Cee until she took it, “strawberry flavoured.”

“ _Real_ strawberry?”

Ezra picked up another bar and looked at the label again. _Contains 'real' freeze dried strawberry shavings!_ , the vaguely bear-shaped brand mascot cheerfully proclaimed.

_This_ is what that connection on the orbiter had been advertising for an exorbitant price?

“Sonofa-” Ezra cut himself off as Cee’s shoulders started shaking with laughter. “That is _not_ funny.”

“ _This_ is what I would have had to give a ‘fresher up for?” Cee opened the bar and sniffed at it skeptically, still unable to stop giggling even as she cradled her injured side with one arm. "Oh yeah, _totally_ worth it."

"Smartass." Ezra bit a corner off the bar and considered it as he chewed. It had been long enough since he'd had anything strawberry flavoured that he couldn't decide if it actually had a strawberry flavour or not. It just tasted… different, than the small variety of flavours that they had been eating. "Hmm. I never woulda heard the end of that one."

Cee started laughing again, and as annoyed as Ezra was, her laughter was contagious and he found himself grinning as well.

"They're not so bad," Cee conceded once she had finished her portion and wiped the laugh-tears from her eyes, "but I don't think I would have paid a 'fresher worth for it."

"A wise decision." Ezra said wryly as he stuffed the wrapper from his meal into the recycling storage pouch built into the side of the tent. "Good thing greater minds prevailed."

Cee performed a dramatic bow with exaggerated hand flourishes, but ended up clutching at her side again. "Ow."

"Stop squirming. Anything cracked? Bleeding?"

"It's fine." Cee lifted the bottom of her shirt to show that the foam was still intact and fresh-blood free. "I don't even know if it hurts. It feels… weird. Makes me almost think it hurts but then…"

"Probably have some wires crossed, between being on the good painkillers and having the foam holding you together." Ezra said, trying not to sound as stressed about it as he was. "Just… rest, okay? Stop wiggling."

"Okay, _mom_." Cee rolled her eyes but appeared to make an attempt to try, although she did pull the tablet back into her lap to continue going through it. "So, I think someone here either figured out the same thing we did, or at least they were really close to figuring it out. There's seismic data on here that someone was downloading, but I don't know if they ever got to look at it."

"There might have been someone else here taking samples, same as Henrik. Or maybe it was the competition."

"Oh!" Cee suddenly said, straightening her back as she looked at the screen with even more interest. "You're never gonna- no, guess what they also had?"

"A pet tarantula." Ezra guessed. With his luck, it was also loose in the building and would only appear once he found it in his hair or clothing. Again.

"I wish, but no." Cee snickered into her hand. "They put Pings on all the necessities."

"Define necessities."

"Electronics, the expensive lab equipment, drones, _starters_ …."

That piqued Ezra's curiosity more than anything.

"Any hits?"

"No, the signal can’t get through these metal walls, but it might work tomorrow when we're outside."

There was a scrabble of claws and shifting gravel, clearly audible from inside the tent. Ezra found himself holding his breath, listening, and could see from the corner of his eye that Cee was similarly affected.

“Can they get in here?” Cee whispered after a long moment of silence.

“I don’t think so.”

Cee didn’t look comforted.

“They haven’t gotten in so far. We’re okay.” Ezra tried again. “I’ll keep watch. You get some sleep.”

“You need sleep, too. You’ve been sleeping less than me.”

“You’re hurt. You need the rest more.” Ezra started dragging his suit back on. “I’ll go do another walk-around.”

Cee grumbled a bit but didn’t try to stop him. It was dark in the container when he crawled out of the tent, lit only by the soft glow of light that came from Cee’s crank lantern in the tent, so he turned his helmet lamp on to check the integrity of the container they were in once more. Nothing had changed since last time he had checked, but he felt better for having done it, especially since the noises outside were only growing louder and more bold as more of the creatures gathered outside. He checked his thrower again, then decided to keep watch for a while, shutting his helmet lamp off again to conserve his suit’s battery.

“Ez?” Cee spoke quietly enough he only heard her over the mic. “I can’t sleep.”

He remembered just in time to change the sensitivity of his mic so it would pick up his own quieter than usual voice. “Your book is in my bag.”

He saw a shadow in the tent move as she reached to grab it.

“Are you staying out there?”

“For now. Just until things quiet down.”

“Can I read it to you? Where you left off.”

Ezra grinned to himself. “Sure thing, little bird.”

Keeping her voice low, Cee read to him over their mics, pausing from time to time when the sounds outside grew loud enough to be heard, but her voice began to taper off as the evening wore on. Ezra didn't interrupt, letting her nod off.

He kept watch most of the night, only returning to the tent once it quieted outside, about an hour before the sun would be rising once more. Cee stirred as he crawled back into the tent.

"Go back to sleep." He said, pulling his helmet and glove off before laying down on top of his sleeping bag. "Sun'll be up soon."

He was more tired than he thought, out like a light almost before he was fully horizontal.

***


	7. Chapter 7

***

It felt like he had only slept for a matter of seconds when something woke Ezra, and he opened his eyes with a start. A growl seemed to fill the tent, and his gaze snapped towards the source to see one of the creatures standing beside him with Cee crushed in it's jaws, blood streaming from her mouth and down her death-twitching limbs. He was frozen, unable to even scream, when she opened her eyes to look at him.

"Ez," she said, and Ezra snapped awake with a strangled shout, his heart pounding in his chest.

Cee was sitting up in her sleeping bag, looking at him in concern. There was no sign of any creatures, or damage to the tent.

"Are you okay?"

Ezra had to wheeze to catch his breath, trying to calm his racing heart, not remembering when he had sat up. 

"Yeah, yeah," he finally managed once he got enough air, "just… just a nightmare."

His chronometer began buzzing on his wrist, indicating the sun was now rising outside. He silenced it with a gesture and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

Cee sat quietly, watching him without saying anything. She had pulled her suit back on, with her helmet and gloves sitting with her bag beside her. The image of her dead came to the forefront of his mind again and he shuddered.

"You're sure you're okay?" Cee sounded skeptical.

Ezra nodded, cleared his throat, checked his chronometer.

"We should get ready," he said with a rough voice, "sun's coming up."

They shared a nutrient bar for breakfast, neither of them hungry for more, and Cee shot him another grin over the strawberry flavour while he just shook his head, although he couldn't help his own smile. He really wouldn't be hearing the end of that one anytime soon.

Before venturing out of the container themselves, Cee tossed the small camera drone she had found out the door and used the base controls and small viewer screen to take it up high enough to give them a view of the area. Ezra waited _mostly_ patiently for her verdict.

"Looks good from here." Cee decided. "We can go."

He cautiously pushed the door of the container open and stuck his head out to look around, going slow to give any lingering creatures an opportunity to make their appearance. When nothing did, he stepped outside, his thrower in hand, and Cee followed him with the tablet already in hand.

"I'm getting signals from…" Cee looked up from the tablet screen and pivoted on a heel before double-checking, "that way."

There weren't any structures in the direction she indicated. Ezra frowned.

"You sure?"

" _Yes._ "

"Alright. Let's check it out." Ezra swallowed nervously, still on edge from his nightmare that morning. "Stay close to me, alright? Tell me when we're close."

She didn't end up needing to say anything, as they came upon a scene that neither ever expected to see. They had come into camp from the opposite direction, and had never come this way before, but he knew that the terraformer that the main camp was servicing was in this direction. Once they reached the top of the incline, both Ezra and Cee stopped dead in their tracks to stare down the sudden slope that swept out into the distance.

The old terraformers on this planet reminded Ezra of a drill bit; while it looked mostly like a large dome with vents and openings and a service walkway around the outer edge on the surface, he knew the other half of the massive device was underground, both as natural protection for the technology in a changing climate caused by its own tasks, and for more direct contact with the different surface layers to encourage more of the changes the device was orchestrating. Because it was underground and only accessible via internal ladders and walkways, Ezra had never seen the outside of the lower half of the terraformers except on blueprints. Until now, anyway.

A huge pit - at least a kilometer deep, and probably twice that wide - had been cleared on the slope between them and the terraformer, exposing about a third of the device's width and maybe half its depth, well beyond what Henrik had dug up near their camp. Ezra could see that they had broken past the initial layer of the parent material that had the odd tubes and tunnels, and they had gone much deeper than that. Machinery of different types sat scattered about, but it was mostly for pushing material around, rather than breaking it up; they had to have been using explosives to break it up and then simply pushing it aside.

"Are we the only ones that weren't aware of this little project?" Ezra looked around, trying to figure out how he hadn't seen this earlier. "What is going _on_ here?"

"I don't know, but this is where the signal is."

" _What?_ "

That made him even more confused, but she showed him the tablet screen and sure enough, they were essentially standing on top of the Ping. They both looked down, down, to the rock layer that held the tunnels that Cee had speculated were lava tubes.

"Not lava tubes." Cee said. "That's where those things live."

"Fuck." Ezra said succinctly.

***

They ended up retreating back to the camp to try to figure out their next move. Since it was barely midday, they opened the improvised garage doors to move the land mule closer to one side so that their tent could have more space to be properly set up, rather than squished in a narrow space. They still had daylight when they finished, so they went through the habitats once more, collecting a few things and looking for anything that could help with their current problem.

"We could hotwire one of the pods." Cee held up a pair of wire cutters that she had found amongst the mess. "Like in the _Ten Suns_ serial."

"They're all new enough to have the fail safes installed." Ezra said without looking up from the trashy celebrity magazine he had found by one of the bunks. "Trying to hotwire them will just fry the central control unit, and then we'll really be stuck."

"Oh. How do you know that?"

"It's what my ship had."

Cee considered the wire cutters for another moment but put them aside to keep looking. Ezra had told her a little more about the ship he had owned and captained, but he was clearly still sour about the whole thing. From what he said, it was entirely possible that his ship and mutinous crew were even still out there in the Black somewhere. He claimed to have no interest in finding them again, and it would be a nigh impossible task to catch up with them anyway, but Cee had caught him scanning the launch schedules at a few different outposts they had visited between jobs. Not that he'd ever admit it.

She opened an unlocked cubby, and hesitated when she saw the industrial safety harnesses inside. The harnesses were for maintenance workers to use to tie-off with when they needed to go onto roofs or any other high working space, and she also found the nylon straps with the heavy lobster-claw clips meant for tying-off with.

"What about—" Cee started as she turned to show Ezra what she had found.

"No. No way. Uh-uh." Ezra could have only barely recognized what she was holding before he was already shaking his head. "Absolutely not."

"What else are we going to do then?" Cee demanded. "We don't even have a radio to contact the orbiter again. No one is coming."

Ezra kicked a fallen chair to grab and right it, and dropped into it to just sit and look at her and the harness for a long moment, tapping his fingers rapidly against his thigh.

"We could use the winch on the mule, and one of us goes down to look for where the Pings are coming from." Cee held the harness up. "Anything goes wrong, tug on the winch cable and get pulled back out."

"We have no way of knowing if those things are actually sleeping down there during the day, they could have shifts for guard duty, for all we know."

"They don't have any predators. Why would they need guard duty?"

"They don't have any predators that we're _aware_ of." Ezra corrected. "Even if they're all asleep, crawling around in their tunnels is bound to wake some up."

Cee dropped the harness and lobster-claw clips and trudged over to a clear space of floor to sit down, moving gingerly so as not to hurt her side. She was tired, having spent more time upright and on her feet than she'd had in a few cycles. Even so, she felt a lot better than she had since… _it_ had happened. It was still hard to think about Henrik getting killed trying to save her from being eaten by one of those things.

Tilting her head up towards the translucent ceiling showed that while the sun was still up, it would be starting it's descent soon. She laid down on the floor on her back and stared up at the hazy, yellow sky.

"What are you doing," Ezra sighed.

"Waiting for something to happen, since we apparently aren't going to _make_ anything happen."

She saw his shoulders slump out of the corner of her eye, and he stood to look around the room as if looking for another solution. He went to the nearby wall-mounted emergency kit and poked around in it a bit before looking around the habitat some more. Eventually, however, he came over and picked up the harness she had dropped. She pushed herself upright to lean back against the heels of her hands to watch him, but didn't say anything.

"It's our last resort, alright?" Ezra finally said, shouldering the gear. "We'll do some more recce tomorrow, see if we can get the power back up and the communications array online, see what the orbiter thinks."

"They had to have known about this." Cee pointed out. "They said that they've been taking images on every pass and it all looked fine."

"I know. You're right. But let's not jump to conclusions. This could all just be a misunderstanding."

Cee snorted at that.

"Cee, I am _trying_ , here."

"I know." Cee got to her feet again, still moving gingerly, and looked at him. Ezra looked tired, his brow furrowed with worry. "I trust you, okay? But you need to trust me too. I want to help. I _can_ help."

Ezra closed his eyes and slowly blew a breath out before looking at her again.

"I know you can, little bird." Ezra finally said, and gestured to the safety harness. "I just hope it doesn't come to this."

***


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cee gives the creatures a name. Some violence happens. Be warned, this chapter contains animal death, marked at beginning and end by ~

**

"What should we call these things?"

"Hmm?" Ezra snorted like she had woken him from a doze, which she felt a little bad about, but he was awake now and she couldn't sleep, despite being tired.

"Those animals. Creatures. We should name them."

"Um. Critters." Ezra still sounded half asleep. "Badgers."

"What's a badger?"

"Old terra animal. Mean. Lived in burrows."

"Really?" Cee was skeptical. "I thought old terra was a dead planet."

"Wasn't always."

"Hmm." Cee contemplated that, but she wound up thinking about names for the creatures again. "What about the animals that the scientists introduced? The ones that went extinct. What were they called? Do you think these animals came from those?"

"I suspect the extinct ones went extinct because they were eaten by these ones." Ezra said dryly. Cee had shut her lantern off, so she couldn't see his expression in the dark to see if he was joking or not. "I think the pamphlet said… Aldora? Aldoha?"

"Oh yeah. _Aldohzan_."

"Right."

"I don't like that name."

"Hmm."

He sounded tired. Cee knew she should let him sleep, and quieted down, trying to go to sleep herself. The painkillers Ezra had found were working wonders for her achiness and soreness, but for some reason they weren’t helping her sleep. 

She could hear gravel shifting outside as the creatures paced around camp. Fortunately, none of them had tried to get into the container again, apparently having given up on them.

"Wolverine." Ezra suddenly said in the dark, his voice still thick with sleep.

"What's that?"

"Bigger version of a badger."

"We could call the little ones badgers and the big ones wolverines." Cee suggested.

"What about the middle ones?"

Cee thought about it for a moment.

"Wadgers. No, balverines," she finally decided. "Badgers, balverines, and wolverines."

Ezra snorted, and she couldn't help her own snicker.

"Actually, let's just call them all balverines."

"I like it. Rolls off the tongue."

"Check that off the to-do list. Most important task: done."

Ezra laughed, although it sounded like he buried his face in his sleeping bag to muffle the sound, and Cee tried to stifle her own. 

Something suddenly banged on the side of the garage container, and they both jumped, Ezra reaching out to grab Cee's arm in the dark before they froze, waiting, listening. Claws scrabbled as one of the 'balverines' climbed on top of the container to pace a bit before jumping off with a soft thump, and it was quiet once more.

"Oh, _fuck_." Ezra breathed, the grip on her arm loosening as he fell back in his sleeping bag. “I will _never_ take not being stalked by wild animals for granted _ever_ again.”

Cee cautiously reached for her lantern and turned it on to the lowest setting, unable to handle being in pitch blackness anymore. Ezra blinked in the soft light but didn’t protest. Cee tried to calm her racing heart, but any sounds from outside only sent it galloping again.

Ezra finally sat up with a huff and opened his shoulder bag before settling back in his sleeping bag with _The Streamer Girl_ in hand.

“Up for another chapter?”

Cee pulled her sleeping bag up to her chin and nodded.

***

Cee sent the little camera drone out ahead of them again in the morning, making sure to give the roof a good look as well as the area. The thought of a balverine sitting just above them was nerve wracking, but nothing showed up on the camera.

They ventured out to the base camp's power station, where Cee stood guard with the long thrower while Ezra began an inspection to see if he could determine what and where the problem was. It was similar to their own setup they had at their camp, although on a larger scale, and here they also had a barrel-shaped windmill, although Ezra had yet to see it turn.

"Anything?" Cee asked over the radio after a few minutes while she was making a slow sweep around the building.

"Couple chewed cables, like what happened to us." Ezra reported. "More solar panels smashed, too."

"Can we fix it?"

"Yep. Just looking for the tools, now." Ezra opened the door to the maintenance tool shed and was suddenly bowled off his feet by an impact that completely knocked the wind from his lungs.

Before he could draw a breath, or discern up from down, sharp teeth sunk into his shoulder and neck, and then a crushing force held him so tightly he _couldn't_ draw a breath, or hardly move, for that matter.

All he could see was yellow sky, and the dusty, brown fur of the creature that nearly had him by the throat. Something seemed to tug at the creature - balverine, his subconscious unhelpfully supplied - and then it tugged at him. He somehow managed to grab his belt knife and blindly swung it, and felt it strike true. The balverine nearly dropped him then, but it readjusted it’s vice-like grip and then he _really_ couldn’t breathe as it yanked him across the ground.

He hoped that Cee would do the smart thing and go back to the land mule container. She'd be able survive off the remaining supplies until another ship with drop pods arrived at the orbiter. She was smart. She'd be fine. 

Something cracked in his chest, then everything went mercifully black.

***

Cee had her back turned when she heard Ezra grunt, and then all she could hear was a balverine growling and yowling as gravel sprayed as it struggled wildly. She spun around, already lifting the thrower, just in time to see Ezra being dragged across the ground.

The balverine was already bleeding, leaking dark green blood that splattered on the ground, but it still tried to shake Ezra violently before Cee managed to get a clear shot and quickly unloaded the clip of her thrower into it. The thought of accidentally hitting Ezra was terrifying, but the thought of letting him be dragged away was even more so. The balverine snarled at her around it’s mouthful, adjusting it’s grip once more, and continued it’s attempt to drag Ezra down into it’s loose gravel tunnel. 

Cee grabbed the next clip for the thrower and jammed it in with hands made clumsy by haste and fear. She had to run to get a better angle as it retreated, and while instinct told her to aim for the head, that was _way_ too close to Ezra, so she adjusted and emptied the second clip into its neck even as it thrashed as it backed into gravel, looking like it was sinking while dragging its prize. There was no time to reload the thrower again, so Cee grabbed her belt knife and threw herself at the balverine.

~

She had only ever used this knife for practical purposes, like cutting rope too tightly knotted to be loosened, opening sealed crates or packets, stripping the plastic coating off of wires, or any other number of common tasks. It was something she kept on her belt as a tool for her work, not self defense. Feeling the blade sinking into living flesh with the intention to kill was surprisingly _not_ like the thousands of times she'd done it while processing, but she didn't take the time to analyze that particular thought and did it again, and again, aiming for one of it's hooded little eyes until the balverine finally stopped struggling and snarling with a dying gurgle.

~

Ezra wasn’t moving anymore, limp in the balverine's jaws and already partially buried in the gravel. Cee started shoveling the loose rocks off of him, but she had to shove her boot into the balverine’s mouth and use both hands to pry it’s jaw open before she could drag him free and roll him onto his back.

His suit was chewed up and the faceplate was cracked and the air hose had been bitten in half. Cee took it all in at once, but didn’t know where to start, panic beginning to settle on her like a heavy blanket.

“C'mon, get up." Cee shook him, and he suddenly flinched and sucked in a wheezing breath before letting out a pained moan. “We have to move.”

Ezra tried, even nearly getting to his feet with her help before he collapsed again. She ended up having to grab him by the straps on his suit and dragged him backwards across the ground towards the container that held their tent and land mule. He flailed once as he started to come around again, nearly hitting her in the process, but he caught himself in time and that was when she managed to bully him to his feet. His breathing was getting progressively worse the longer he was without proper oxygen saturation thanks to his damaged suit, but there wasn’t anything Cee could do without going for supplies - and she wasn’t about to leave him alone to get dragged off again.

Finally, she managed to get him inside the container and latched the door behind them. It was a further struggle to get the dizzily weaving Ezra into the tent, his suit getting frustratingly caught on different parts of the tent and door flap, but they were finally secured inside and she started up the ventilation and oxygen before yanking their helmets and gloves off and pulling his suit open.

“Oh, I was stupid.” Ezra rasped with a grimace. 

His right shoulder and the junction where his shoulder met neck was a chewed up mess, and she was pretty sure his collar bone was broken as well, although it was difficult to tell for sure with the swelling and torn flesh. Nothing was spurting blood, which she took as a good sign, but he was still losing an alarming amount. 

The field kit was still open from the last time Ezra had used it to treat her own injuries, and she dragged it closer to rummage through the contents. He had found more antibiotics during one of their searches through the habitats, so she jabbed him with one of those syringes before setting to work.

He needed stitches, or staples, something to hold torn flesh together, she quickly realized. There were too many gaps, too deep or too wide to heal together properly or easily. She didn’t have anything like that though, nor the experience or knowledge on how to do it properly anyway. 

"Oh, shit." Ezra groaned when she prepared the solution for the irrigation bulb, then flinched with a yelp when she started flushing the worst of the wounds.

"Sorry." Cee said, despite the fact she wasn't going to stop, either. "Hold still."

" _Shit,_ " Ezra managed before flinching once more, and grit his teeth. 

She worked quickly, and considered using foam in the bigger gashes, but decided it would probably cause more problems with the complicated injuries, so she sprayed his neck and shoulder down with the less-effective coagulant and taped gauze over the entire mess before getting him to lean forward so she could do it again to the back of his shoulder. It didn't take long for spots of blood to show through the gauze, but she hoped it would stop bleeding soon.

"Done. Here." She had to lean over to grab the box of painkillers she'd been using, and she dumped a couple out for him. There were still a few left, at least, but now between the two of them they wouldn't last much longer. Ezra made a face but took the pills when she offered them, and she could almost see the tension drain out of him as they began to work. While she waited, she grabbed the remains of his chewed up shirt and mopped up the worst of the mess from the tent floor. After a few minutes, Ezra tried to shift to lay down with a groan, but he let her help him get situated more comfortably on his sleeping bag once she dragged it closer.

"You get the number of that freighter that hit me?" Ezra's voice was rough and weaker than usual, but his sense of humour seemed to be intact. Cee scoffed at the bad joke, but couldn't meet his eyes. Of course, annoyingly, he noticed right away. "You alright, little bird? Think I lost track of some time there."

Cee nodded, and to her mortification she realized she was going to cry. She scrubbed at her face, but the tears started coming anyway. Ezra stirred, probably in an ill-advised attempt to sit up, but the move was quickly aborted with a groan of pain. Cee shuffled closer and gently flicked him on the forehead before she wiped her eyes with her sleeve again.

"Stop moving."

"Hmm." Ezra squeezed his eyes shut briefly before opening them again. "You might be right."

"Of course I'm right."

Ezra's chuckle cut off with another groan as he grimaced in pain.

"You need stitches." Cee told him. "Or staples. I don't think I could do it, even if we had what I need here."

"Might be something still hidden away in the habitat."

"I still don't know what to do!" Cee's temper flared, unbidden, startling herself. She bit her lip and breathed out shakily before speaking again. "It chewed on you, Ez. You're a mess. It ripped up skin and meat and I think your collarbone is broken and needs to be set and I don't know how to fix it. You need a doctor."

Ezra was fumbling to reach for her before she had even finished speaking, and she automatically took his hand. He squeezed, trying to comfort _her_ , when _he_ was the one hurt. He was infuriating, sometimes.

"I should have reminded you to check before going in there." She said, voice still thick. "I should have been closer, I might have-"

"It was my stupid mistake." Ezra interrupted her. "I got cocky, stopped using my brain. It ain't your fault, little bird."

"Feels like it _is_ my fault."

"It's not." He squeezed her hand again. He looked tired, and in pain. Cee still wanted to blame herself, but didn't press it. He needed rest.

"What are we going to do?" She found herself asking without meaning to. 

"We'll think of something. We always do." He stopped to breathe for a moment. "Just gotta think for a bit. Sleep on it."

Cee took another deep breath, composing herself, and nodded. 

"Speaking of, you should get some sleep." She told him.

"'Time is it?"

"It isn't even midday, but you aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Sleep."

"Bossy." He muttered, but his eyes were already closed. He was pale in the lantern light, and sweat was starting to make his hair stick to his forehead. She felt his forehead, but couldn't tell if it was warmer than it should be, and he smacked her hand away, although gently. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Your face'll get stuck like that," he said without opening his eyes.

"How do you _do_ that?" Cee couldn't think of a time she'd been able to pull a face behind his back without him commenting on it.

"Instinct." He deadpanned, still without opening his eyes. Cee just shook her head, and settled in to wait.

Once his breathing evened out and he relaxed in sleep, Cee quietly pulled her gear back on and slipped out of the tent.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I accidentally discover how the monsters were named in Fable while writing this? Yes I did, and I cackled about it a bit, and kept it in anyway. Also, fun bit of trivia for you, if you've played Dragon Age: Inquisition Trespasser, you can find a balverine head mounted on the wall in the tavern that Sera and Iron Bull hang out in. The video game balverines don't really look like what I had imagined for the ones in this story but it's a good name for a thing that kinda looks like badgers/wolverines dammit


	9. Chapter 9

***

Cee stood at the edge of the excavation pit, taking in the scene. The massive terraformer sat silently in the near distance, and she could see faint outlines of two of the moons in the yellow sky. Nothing moved on the planet surface, other than a faint breeze that rustled amongst the short, spiky grass and ferns that clung to the rocky landscape.

Below her feet, the ground dropped away in a steep slope to the bottom of the pit. From this direction, she'd barely be able to scramble down without sliding all the way to the bottom, but it also had the easiest access to the balverine tunnel layer. If she went around the edge to where the equipment access slope was it would be safer to get to the bottom, but then it was a fair climb back up to the tunnels, and it was hard to gauge from this distance how high they actually were. The breeze was blowing against her, either coming from across the pit or from below, so she picked up a piece of rock about the size of her fist and hefted it before she threw it as hard as she could.

It went further than she expected thanks to the light gravity, and the arc downwards was almost gentle. She expected it to hit the bottom and stop with a thump, but it cracked against another rock perfectly and bounced a couple times before it settled in it's new spot. Overall, it wasn't a very loud disturbance, but Cee crouched at the edge of the pit, watching, waiting.

It didn't take long before one dusty balverine cautiously poked its head out of a tunnel, then another joined it. They were some of the smaller ones - the 'badgers' - and Cee could tell now that their movements were more uncertain than the bigger ones. They both sniffed the air, but neither looked up to where she crouched. Cee was glad she had made sure she was downwind; she had suspected that they likely relied on their sense of smell but hadn't been sure.

The balverines seemed to decide it had merely been a natural disturbance, and retreated back into the tunnels. Cee waited a few more minutes before she pulled the small camera drone from her pocket and tossed it in the air. The little drone caught the breeze and dipped and bobbed as it adjusted itself into a hover as it awaited further commands. The little screen was hard to see in the sunlight, but Cee shaded it with her hand and took the drone down to the tunnels.

Unfortunately, the little camera drone didn't have any extra sensors or even a flash, and flying it into the tunnels only sent back a dark picture that she couldn't make anything out in. She flew it back out with a disappointed sigh; it would have been nice to be able to at least confirm where the Ping signals were coming from.

Once she had pocketed the drone and it's base once more, she got back to her feet and carefully, quietly backed away from the edge before she started walking around the edge of the pit, giving it a wide berth as she headed for the terraformer.

Last she heard, the main base camp had made further progress with their terraformer than they had, but Henrik had also told her that they hadn't had nearly as big of a job for repairs to be done, either. The main base camp had been more focused on collecting samples and studying them in their field lab, which likely paid them just as well if not more than the mechanical repair side of things that they'd been doing, and the main base camp was doing it on a much larger scale than they had been. But as she approached the huge device, Cee had the sudden, awful fear that none of the repairs had been done. After all, this team of people didn't seem to have the same goals that her and Ezra had. What if they had _never_ had the same goals?

Fortunately, her fears were calmed almost as soon as she mounted the maintenance catwalk and opened the first panel. She could tell new parts from old, and see the repairs that had been done, similar to the work she'd been doing. Opening the nearby generator bay door revealed more of the same, and plugging her maintenance code reader into the primitive but bomb-proof computer of the terraformer showed her that all systems were green. It had even been running recently, according to the feed, but for some reason had been shut down again.

Cee checked the time, and then looked out over the pit once more, a plan beginning to form. She carefully punched a command into the terraformer computer before she put everything back as she had found it, making sure everything was safely stowed, then headed back to the camp to begin making her idea reality.

"Cee?" Ezra sleepily called from inside the tent when she came back into the container and shut the door behind her.

"Yeah, it's me. Everything's fine, go back to sleep."

He muttered something else, but quieted down once more while she set to work unloading the land mule. It didn't take her long, and she was able to set everything non-essential off to the side and piled the rest of their food and water by the tent flap to keep it handy.

Ezra didn't stir when she crawled into the tent later, which was odd. He didn't often sleep very heavily, usually jerking awake at the smallest sound or even flicker of light; likely another habit he had brought back from the Green, like how he tended to automatically check for a filter he usually wasn't wearing these days. She also noticed he was even paler than before, taking on an ashen tone with a sheen of sweat on his brow, and the green and black bruises had bloomed big enough to show around the gauze taped over the bite wounds in his neck and shoulder. She checked his forehead again, and was pretty sure it was, in fact, starting to feel warmer than it should.

Cee double-checked the label on the antibiotics and found the information pamphlet in the field kit, flipping to the page on fevers and infections. It didn't calm her fears any, but she pulled another instant ice pack out of the box and shook it until it felt cold and laid it on his forehead.

There wasn't anything else she could do. All that was left was to wait and see if the antibiotics would help him fight off the infection that he had likely picked up from the balverine's mouth. Any bite or scratch from an alien species held the potential for a deadly infection from bacteria; Ezra had just been unlucky enough to be thoroughly chewed up by an alien species, all but guaranteeing an infection. Still, Cee realized she had been holding out hope that she had cleaned it well enough and fast enough, as well as giving him the antibiotics, to prevent it.

"It's never simple with you, is it." 

Ezra didn't respond, didn't even stir in his sleeping bag. 

Soft footsteps padded outside and one of the balverines snuffled along the bottom of the container door loudly and gave it a couple half-hearted swipes with its claws before moving on again.

It was going to be a long night.

***

Once Cee had everything she needed from inside the tent packed, she checked her chronometer again. The sun would be up outside, and it was well past the time the balverines usually disappeared for the day. 

Ezra looked even worse than the night before, and wouldn't be fully roused, even when she managed to coax some water in him from time to time. He needed more medicine than they had here, but the only place he'd be able to get that medicine and any treatment he needed was on the orbiter, and it had never felt so far out of reach.

She pulled her pen from her shoulder bag and grabbed Ezra's hand to write a message on it, like he had done to her before, and then made sure his canteen, mic, and the painkillers were within easy reach for when he woke up. She took another dose of the painkillers as well; her side hadn't been hurting as badly but it was still sore and made her move stiffly, and she needed to be able to move quickly now.

"Wish me luck." She told him. 

Ezra still didn't respond.

Physical acts of affection didn't come to her easily - not after years of awkward distance between her and her father - but she didn't think twice about dropping a kiss on his forehead before she pulled her helmet and gloves on and crawled out of the tent to start her day.

Fortunately - or unfortunately, she wasn't sure which - the dead balverine that had tried to drag Ezra into its lair was still half buried in the gravel where she had left it. It was the first time she actually got an opportunity to study one up close, but she didn't have time to be as thorough as she would have liked. Putting her belt knife to work she was more familiar with, she began the messy work of skinning the animal. 

It had been a while since she'd had to do something like this, but it came back to her as she worked, and it wasn't long before she had a balverine hide. It wasn't the prettiest job, but it would do. She cut the hide further, making a few strips and shaping bigger pieces, then she went to fetch some plastic zip-ties from her toolbox (that Ezra had been kind enough to pack in the land mule) and started wrapping and fastening the pieces of hide to herself in a terrible fur outfit on top of her enviro-suit.

It was the part of the plan she wasn't completely confident in, but if it helped even a little to disguise her scent… Hopefully it would be worth it.

The next thing she zip-tied to herself was the tablet she had found with the Ping program used for sending and receiving signals from the tagged items. It was just barely small enough to strap to her forearm, although it was a bit bulky, and she put another flap of hide over it so she could hide the backlit screen if need be.

The trip out to the pit was much quicker with the land mule, and she hoped the sound of the tires on the gravel wouldn't be enough to bring anything out to investigate. She stopped at the edge of the pit, winch facing forward, and grabbed the winch remote and the industrial safety harness that she had found in the habitat before climbing out.

The safety harness was far too big for her, even over her balverine fur outfit, but she managed to pull all the straps tight enough to be better than nothing, at least. The winch cable was heavy and not intended for this purpose, but she clipped herself in and backed off the edge of the pit, using the winch remote to slowly and carefully lower herself down the side.

She accidentally disturbed a few rocks, sending a couple tumbling, but thankfully didn't set off any rockslides. Still, each accidental sound she made made her freeze, watching, waiting for a balverine to stick it's head out and see her, but nothing emerged and she continued down to the tunnels without incident. Hopefully that meant that everything was still asleep.

Her heart was pounding by the time she was perched at the entrance of one of the tunnels, more from fear than exertion. She flipped on her headlamp, terrified she'd see glowing eyes staring back at her, but all she saw was an empty tunnel hewn in the stone, barely big enough for her to crawl through. It turned downwards not far from where she was, limiting her range of view, but there was no sign of movement and nothing made a sound. She checked the tablet on her forearm, confirming that she was as close to the Ping source as possible while outside of a tunnel. This was it.

Taking a deep breath, Cee let more of the winch cable out and began crawling down the balverine tunnel.

***

Ezra woke up, and immediately wished he hadn't. His whole right side felt like it was throbbing in time with his heartbeat, including the limb that he _knew_ wasn't there anymore and yet he still couldn't fully shake the sensation. Still, he was surprised to be waking up at all, and tucked away in the tent, no less.

"Cee," he rasped, voice weaker than he expected, but there was no response. He managed to free his arm from the sleeping bag and fumbled around, and the backs of his fingers hit his canteen at the same time he felt his mic. He lifted the mic to his ear first, then looked at the message she'd penned on the back of his hand. Stay put!!! she'd written, and signed with a smiley face with angry eyebrows and a tongue sticking out. 

Okay, maybe he deserved that one.

He picked up his canteen and nearly dropped it, but managed to take a few sips before putting it back down and closing his eyes again, completely spent.

He didn't know how much time passed before he remembered that he'd meant to do something.

"Cee," he tried again. There was no response at first, and he tried to remember if he'd changed the pickup sensitivity on his mic again, but then there was a burst of static.

"Can't talk right now," Cee whispered.

"Can't talk right now?" Ezra repeated with a frown. Where was she? Why wouldn't she be able to talk? "What are you doing?"

Another burst of static, but she didn't say anything. Ezra started getting a bad feeling.

"Cee," he tried again, more sternly, but the effect was ruined when he was hit by a fit of coughing. He grimaced and pressed against the worst of the pain in his chest, feeling like skin and flesh and bone were moving in ways they definitely shouldn't be. "Where are you?"

There was a long moment of silence, long enough he nearly opened his mouth to check if she was still listening.

"I'm getting us out of here." Cee finally said, still whispering. "I'll be-"

Her mic cut off without warning.

Ezra could feel his heart rate rising. The bad feeling was just getting worse.

"Cee." He just needed to know she was okay. That her mic had just failed to pick her voice up properly. " _Cee!_ "

***

The tunnels were more complicated than Cee had anticipated. She didn't know what, exactly, to expect, but the criss-crossing maze that sometimes opened up large enough for her to stand was a surprise. She was glad that she had the winch cable to guide her back, but it was also a hindrance, catching on corners, scraping on the ground, and just being generally heavy. Still, she pushed on, obsessively checking the tablet for the Ping signal and trying to be as quiet as possible. She had yet to come across a balverine, and while she hoped to keep it that way, every twist and turn that she couldn't see around only put her more on edge. The further she went, the more she expected her headlamp to pick up gleaming eyes in the darkness.

"It should be _here_." She muttered to herself in frustration. According to the Ping map, she was essentially on top of the signal. Or rather, upon inspecting the map further, below it. She had reached the end of the winch cable a few times and doubled back to intersections to try different tunnels, but hadn't gotten any closer. Had she started in the wrong tunnel? Was it simply too deep to keep the winch cable on? She was reluctant to unclip from it, but maybe she would have to.

Time was ticking away, as well. She hadn't encountered any balverines so far, or heard anything, but she knew she was pushing her luck. All she had was her knife; the throwers would be all but useless in here, so she'd left Ezra's with him and the long thrower was in the land mule.

Cee kept looking. She didn't have any other choice. She found a tunnel she was pretty sure she hadn't tried yet, and began crawling again.

What felt like hours later, the tablet on her arm suddenly let out a soft chime, making her freeze. It hadn't done that before; what did it mean? Had anything else heard it?

It chimed again, and she fumbled at it, trying to silence it.

Something unseen ran past in one of the tunnels, close enough that she could feel the faint vibrations under her knees.

Everything in her screamed at her to run, to get _out_ of there, but she forced herself to remain still, trying to keep herself from breathing too loudly.

"Cee," her mic clicked on in her ear, startling her badly enough she nearly hit her head on the rocky ceiling. She had to take a deep breath to calm her nerves, but being the stubborn bastard he was, she knew Ezra wouldn't stop until she replied to him.

"I can't talk right now." She whispered, hoping it was enough for her mic to pick up.

"Can't talk right now?" Ezra was slurring a bit. She briefly wondered how bad his fever was now. He sounded worse than last time she had spoken to him, but she quickly shook the thought from her mind. _Focus, Cee, one step at a time._ "What are you doing?"

The tablet suddenly vibrated on her arm. She had managed to silence the chime, but even the vibration seemed loud in the tunnel. She looked at it again, and realized she was the closest she had been as of yet. She shuffled forward a bit more, and finally spotted her quarry.

"Cee, where are you?"

The tunnel seemed to bubble off to the side, and it looked like something had made a nest with dirt and something that looked like dried ferns, like the ones on the surface. It was also littered with random items that Cee recognized as having come from the main base camp, most of them appearing to be particularly shiny. She tried not to think too hard about the torn enviro-suit glove that was laying at the edge of it all.

She had to crawl partially into the nest to do it, but it didn't take long to find _four_ different starters scattered about in the dirt and rocks and random bits of trash. Her hands were shaking, but she carefully tucked them into her shoulder bag and made sure it was fastened shut. _Now_ she could leave.

"I'm getting us out of here." She finally remembered to reply. "I'll be-"

More footsteps drummed, loud enough she could hear as well as feel when the balverine passed by in a nearby tunnel, and another went after it. 

She was out of time.

Cee cautiously stuck her head out into the tunnel, then scrambled out, following the winch cable, not bothering to take the time to use the remote to wind the cable in, feeling like something was breathing down the back of her neck even though that was impossible with her enviro-suit. Ezra was nearly yelling her name in her ear, trying to get a response, but she didn't dare make any more sound than she already was.

The tunnel she was in came to one of the intersections, providing her enough room to stand for a few running steps. Before she could duck down to head down the tunnel with the winch cable, a balverine bolted past her, so close that it knocked her against the tunnel wall. She froze there, pressed against the stone, holding her breath in terror, expecting to feel teeth tearing into her at any moment, but another balverine bolted past her without even looking at her.

Not that that made it any less terrifying.

Her balverine hide disguise must be working better than she'd hoped, but she knew she wouldn't be able to rely on it forever. She didn’t think the bigger balverines would be as dumb as these active but smaller ones.

Another balverine tore down the tunnel, and she realized with horror that the one they seemed to be favouring was the one with the winch cable. If she was blocking the tunnel, whatever ran through it next would get more than a passing whiff or glance. Her scent disguise would never hold up under more intense scrutiny, no matter how dim the smaller ones seemed to be.

Cee usually liked to know her options before making a decision; although she was perfectly capable of making snap decisions, those were the ones that tended to burn her. She had learned there was no such thing as too much information. It just allowed her to think about it a few more steps ahead, exactly how she liked it. In the past, Damon had had no patience for her deliberations, often taking the decision out of her hands before she could make it, but that's what had led her to making the _bad_ snap decisions. Ezra, on the other hand, tried to be patient, and he _was_ when time wasn’t a factor, but he’d also tried to impress upon her that sometimes there was no time for deliberation, only action. Shoot first, ask questions later.

Right now was one of those ‘there’s no time’ times.

Cee unclipped herself from the winch cable and all but dove down the nearest tunnel, scrambling and crawling as fast as she could, refusing to speculate on whether or not the tunnel actually led to the exit. 

It _had_ to.

It was terrifying. The balverines didn’t seem to be trying to leave the tunnel system yet; their movements seemed random, and they were all on the smaller side of the balverine spectrum. It was possible they had just woken early and were burning off excess energy as they waited for their larger counterparts to awaken, but there was no way to know for sure. Whatever the reasons were, she didn’t wait around to find out. 

It felt like a lifetime later when she saw natural light spilling down the tunnel in front of her. She quickly scrambled up the slope, not caring about how much noise she was making anymore, and lunged towards the opening.

Her helmet struck the edge of the gap hard enough that she nearly fell backwards. The opening was too small. She stared at it in disbelief, but it was true. This tunnel had only been clipped during the pit excavation, leaving an empty gap that she _might_ be able to fit her head — helmetless, of fucking course — through.

Cee threw herself at the gap, slamming her shoulder into the stone, trying to find any weakness that would crumble and give her more room. It worked a little, but not nearly enough. She breathed quickly and deeply a few times before yanking her helmet off, and shoved herself into the tiny gap.

Even without the helmet, it was a struggle. She had to back out and discard her small oxygen tank as well as the filtration pack and most of the rough balverine disguise along with the safety harness, using her knife to slice zip ties and straps when buckles proved to be too stubborn, and then she managed to wriggle through, making sure to keep a firm grip on her shoulder bag. 

Once outside, she had to cling to the stone while she oriented herself, but she spotted the winch cable still dangling down the steep slope and disappearing into the tunnel she'd gone in, only a matter of steps away - if there was ground to be stepped on. As it was, she had to grab whatever hand and footholds she could find, shuffling across the stone face until she was able to reach the cable and used it to start climbing back up to the land mule.

Something heavy grabbed her pant leg with enough force that she nearly lost her grip, but she managed to cling to the cable and wildly kicked out with her feet, landing a solid blow with the leg _not_ weighed down by a balverine with a mouthful of the last of her makeshift disguise. It growled at her, but she kicked again, catching it in the side of it’s head, and it let go to tumble down the slope with a howl. She didn't waste any time and continued her scramble, trying to ignore the sounds of growing balverine activity below her and the fact that she was already beginning to feel _really_ lightheaded in the thin atmosphere. She was nearly to the top. She was going to make it.

She nearly screamed when something grabbed her and hauled her up over the last bit to the top, but then she realized it was Ezra, wearing his breather and wild-eyed expression, and she threw her arms around his neck and he hugged her back just as tightly.

"I have the starters!" Cee wheezed in his ear. "I have them!"

Balverines were attempting to scramble up the steep slope after her, and gravel was stirring around them as more began to tunnel their way to the surface.

They wouldn't make it into the land mule, let alone the hopper.

Something huge and _loud_ suddenly let out a mechanical groan and then a boom that seemed to shake the ground. Ezra flinched, still holding her tightly, but she loosened her grip and turned to look towards the terraformer.

A puff of white came from one of the vents as the massive device groaned once more, then the muffled rumbling sounds of a generator firing up echoed in the pit, seeming deafeningly loud with it being partially exposed to the air and the rocky pit making a huge echo chamber.

The balverine activity had nearly stopped, even the ones that had emerged from the gravel near them, all eyes pointed towards the terraformer as it continued to boom and groan and rumble as it attempted to start itself.

Cee got to her feet, not taking her eyes away from the scene, helping Ezra up and they backed away from the edge, tugging and pulling at each other to make sure they were both going as they went, and Cee all but shoved Ezra through the passenger door of the land mule before scrambling over him to throw it into reverse and trod on the accelerator pedal.

Gravel sprayed but they flew backwards into the base camp, Cee driving while looking over her shoulder while Ezra shouted something she couldn't make out anyway. She cranked the wheel to avoid hitting one of the smaller buildings and the land mule leaned alarmingly but miraculously didn't roll, and they spilled out of the vehicle.

"Get that hopper fired up!" Ezra shoved his breather at her and ran back towards the container that held their tent and gear. 

" _Ezra!_ " Cee yelled after him, wanting to tell him whatever it was wasn't worth it, but he just waved towards the hopper.

"Go!"

Biting back a snarl of disapproval, Cee checked that she had her shoulder bag and grabbed the long thrower before bolting towards the large hopper. She could see the balverines still milling by the edge of the pit in confusion, but some of them were already starting to look towards the camp.

She ran onboard and threw herself into the pilot seat to start rooting through her bag, looking for the correct starter. It ended up being the second one she tried, and she nearly punched the air when the console lights came up, but grabbed the manual and began punching in the sequence instead. When she had done as much as she could without the hatch being shut, she leapt out of the seat once more and ran to the hatch with the long thrower.

Ezra was already running towards the hopper, wearing the other breather and carrying his own shoulder bag, but he was nearly staggering as he ran and two balverines were hot on his heels. Cee lifted the thrower, a strange calm coming over her, and Ezra ducked into a crouch but kept running.

Two shots, and one balverine went down. Cee switched targets, firing another two shots, and Ezra was onboard and hitting the hatch controls to shut it. Another shot, and the second balverine fell, but she could see more coming in the distance.

"We have to get out of here before this ends up like the last time we tried!" Ezra yelled, and she knew he was right. She dropped into the pilot seat again and started haphazardly buckling in while trying to finish procedures, and once Ezra was buckled in she let him take control so she could finish securing her belts.

There were several thumps from the outside, balverines throwing themselves at the ship and making it rock, but the rockets were already firing, the aircraft rattling as it began to lift off the ground.

"C'mon, c'mon," Ezra was muttering as he watched the various displays, and then Cee felt the unmistakable sensation of being pressed into her seat as the hopper began its launch.

It wasn't until they were a few hundred feet off the ground that Cee finally let out a shaky laugh. She looked over at Ezra, and realized he was grinning too, and despite still looking like shit thanks to his injuries he let out a victory whoop and she laughed again.

The hopper shook and rattled as they broke the atmosphere, but within minutes they were safely in space. Ezra took the radio to call the orbiter base for pickup protocol, and Cee finally felt like she could breathe easier.

"Was that terraformer starting up your work?" Ezra asked once he had hung up the handheld.

"I wanted to make sure at least one of them was running when we left." She tucked her hair behind her ear but didn't meet his eyes when she admitted, "and I thought I might need a distraction at some point for my plan to get the starters."

"A bold move." Ezra just shook his head, leaning back in his jump seat and looking exhausted. "I _want_ to be furious, but it worked, so I'm hardly one to say anything."

Cee smiled then, relieved, but he lifted a finger in warning.

"But leave the bold jobs like that to me, alright? Not sure I could handle another one of those without having a heart attack."

"No promises." She told him, using another one of his common phrases. Ezra groaned, but they were interrupted by another call from the orbiter, this time with further instructions and an estimated ETA of nearly an hour as they hadn’t launched with the orbiter’s schedule in mind. 

"What did you go back for?" Cee asked him after he hung the handset up and adjusted their course to eventually intercept the orbiter. "That was stupid."

Instead of replying, Ezra finished what he was doing and then opened his shoulder bag and pulled out a palm-sized data drive.

"Figured we'd need some evidence to nail this shadow mining company to the wall, should it come to that." He handed the drive to her. "Thought about using our silence to cash in on some hush money, but you would not _believe_ the conscience I appear to have developed as of late."

Cee just looked at him for a moment, knowing she had a stupid grin on her face, then opened her shoulder bag.

"Should go nicely with this notebook and sample logbook I found, too." Cee pulled out the things Henrik and his counterpart at the main base camp had been using to keep record of their findings and orders.

Ezra leaned over to call up the deep-space communication display, preparing it for sending a zipped packet.

"What say you, we send a little message to parties who may be concerned? I dare say that once we reach the orbiter, there may be some aboard who would object to such a thing."

Cee began plugging the data drives in to collect and zip data, along with a message explaining a bit about what had happened. She made sure to include her and Ezra's names and chain codes, so if anyone on the orbiter was particularly unhappy with them, they'd have to explain to the authorities why, exactly, the two main witnesses had suddenly gone missing. She figured it was as good a bargaining chip as any, but hopefully there were more people sympathetic to the scientific endeavors of the project than indifferent contractors looking to make some extra money.

Ezra had been reading some of it over her shoulder, and when she turned to look at him again she immediately recognized his expression.

"You _would_ be proud, me making sure we have blackmail - I mean, _bargaining_ material."

Ezra just grinned wider and reached over to ruffle her hair.

"Look at us, learning from each other."

"Think anyone will give us a hard time?"

"You know, little bird, even if they do, I think we're gonna be alright."

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all your kind comments and kudos! Couldn't have asked for a better audience <3


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